


Tender Love And Scare

by SonikkuGirl8



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Concussions, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mother-Son Relationship, Reveal Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-03-25 23:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13845102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonikkuGirl8/pseuds/SonikkuGirl8
Summary: When an unexpected ghost attack leaves Maddie and Phantom stranded in the Ghost Zone, they'll need to work together to escape... which becomes near impossible when you factor in Phantom's apparent head injury, making it difficult for him to think straight.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I just noticed the chapters are out of order. I'll have to get to fixing them, but it shouldn't take long.

The first thing I feel when I open my eyes is the entire world spinning.

I’m on a tilt-a-whirl that won’t stop no matter how many times I grip my head and internally yell for it to stop. Or at least try gripping it; I think I grab some kinda squishy rock instead.

Maybe I should try sitting up? Yeah, maybe… maybe that’ll make all the pain drain from my skull down.

I try to sit up from my sprawled position and immediately find the task impossible without the world looking like I’m staring straight into an active ghost portal.

Okay, sitting up equals bad idea. 

I don’t move for awhile and eventually the tilt-a-whirl slows down enough to see where I am. Buncha green. Lotsa purple. Like, holy cow that is a lot of green. Or, orange. A lot of stuff’s starting to look orange.

Where is this again? The Spooky Place, the Haunt Plane, Shadow Realm, Specter Valley… Ah, who cares? Not like it matters. Man, my head really hurts.

I jump, yet another bad idea for moving ‘cause it only makes me feel worse, when something thin, blurry, and and blue (Red? Back to green again? Too many of the things in this place are green) steps in front of me, pointing a white and green (seriously, you can stop it now, place!) thing at me.

“Phantom, get up,” the blurry thing, who I think is a girl says. ‘Phantom’... why does that name ring a bell? Ooh, she means ‘Danny Phantom’! Cool, where is he, he owes me five bucks and a can of sod--

Wait… I’m Danny Phantom… does that mean I owe myself five bucks? How would that work?

“Stop wasting my time, Phantom, get up!” the blurry lady says louder than she did last time, moving the white thing closer to my face. A whining sound comes from it, and immediately I wanna hug it; it just sounds so sad…

“Why’s the white thingy crying…?” I ask the blurry lady, and then the white thingy stops crying right away. She must have talked to it about its feelings or something…

“Thanks… the white thingy… sounned real sad…” The world is getting really dark again, but that’s okay.

Least I don’t have to see all that green anymore.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tale truly begins, showing how Maddie was dragged into this mess.

Maddie started off in a very good mood when she woke up that morning.

The day before, Jazz had gotten her acceptance letter for a prestigious college specializing in teaching psychology, her and Jack had finished a powerful new weapon, and Danny brought home an improved report card -he did have one D+ in PE, but the rest were at least in the mid B range and they weren’t going to kid themselves; Danny wasn’t an athlete- one of the rare times she had seen him do so since the beginning of freshman year. As a celebration, they all went out to eat as a family, Sam and Tucker coming along on Danny’s insistence. Afterwards, the house reveled in comforting silence, with Jazz studying intensely in her room and Danny sleeping over at Sam’s house. The rest of the night, Jack suggested they take a break from the lab and she continuously whooped her husband’s butt in Monopoly until they turned in. All and all, one of the best Fridays she had ever experienced.

Her good mood began souring the moment she noticed a certain white haired ghost passed out on her couch.

Maddie jumped, shocked that Phantom could have gotten into her home without setting off an alarm. Did she actually manage to turn it on at all, she wondered as she picked up a blaster and stalked slowly to the ‘unconscious’ ghost.

There was just no way the ghost was unconscious; he was probably just faking to gain sympathy once again, just like he always tries to do. Stupid ghost picked the wrong house to try his shtick, though, and Maddie found herself developing a smug smile over how easy it would be to capture him while he least expected it. Perhaps his being here wasn’t so bad after all.

When she got to the other side of the couch, though, she paused momentarily when she actually saw his condition. Phantom lie sprawled out on her couch, many portions of his lithe form caked in what seemed to be ectoplasm. It was quite a lot, and she spotted it oozing from both a tear in his suit on his arm, and on the back of his head. He must have recently been in a ghost fight, and a bad one at that.

“Good,” Maddie said to herself, “If he’s recovering from a fight, it’ll be harder for him to get away.”

Maddie was about to retrieve a container from the lab and capture him when out of nowhere, a loud bang emerged from the front wall.

“So, this is where you decided to hide from me, Ghost Child…”

Maddie whipped her head around and spotted the meddlesome ‘hunter’ ghost floating within what used to be her doorway. While he was busy focusing on Phantom, Maddie grabbed two Fenton Thermoses and an improved Fenton Anti-Creep Stick (“Now it REALLY works on ghosts!”, she remembered Jack saying as they finished it). The Anti-Creep Stick would be a perfect way to take down one of the more cockroach-like ghosts that reside in the ‘Zone.

By the time Maddie returned upstairs, the hunter ghost and Phantom were going at it, only unlike most times, Phantom wasn’t putting up much of a fight.

“Skulker, can’t we do this tomorrow when I don’t feel like my head’s gonna explode…?” Phantom whined weakly, and Maddie couldn’t help but notice him slurring his words. ‘Skulker’, as Phantom called him, sure did a number on him.

“Not this time, Phantom. Pride in the hunt is how I always let you get away. This time,” Skulker raised a rocket launcher and aimed all of his ammunition at the younger looking ghost, “ your pelt is mine… And if it’s damaged in the process I can always refurbish it.”

Maddie shuddered at the mention of ‘pelt’, while Phantom gagged. Was that really the reason Skulker was so adamant in hunting Phantom? She never realized ghosts could be so barbaric…

“That’s still REALLY gross, man,” Phantom said, sounding less out of it, and Maddie took the opportunity to blast Skulker into what was left of the front wall. The ghost recovered, and Phantom’s eyes darted around for the source and widened when he finally seemed to realize where he was.

“M-Mo-Maddie!” Phantom squeaked. “Heh. Nice place you got here…?” The younger ghost smiled sheepishly, which he dropped when Maddie showed him she had Thermoses in her possession. Maddie smiled at the fear dripping from him. 

“Oh, look at the time, gotta go, bye!” As fast as a bullet, Phantom tried to run, and he did manage a few feet until he rammed his still damaged head right into Skulker’s chest. This rendered Phantom incapacitated on the ground, and when he got up, he simply swayed before falling back down.

“You should watch where you’re going, Ghost Child.” Skulker scooped Phantom up in one hand. With Phantom in a daze and Skulker distracted, Maddie made her move.

Gripping the Anti-Creep stick tightly, she ran up to the larger ghost and landed three large blows onto him. As she winded up for another one, Skulker blasted her into a wall, most likely as deliberate payback. Maddie saw stars before shaking her head and getting up. 

It was at this point the love her life came thundering down the steps with a Fenton Bazooka.

“GET AWAY FROM MY WIFE, YOU PUTRID PILES OF ECTOPLASM!” Jack roared, aiming a blast behind the two ghosts before firing. The hardly-with-it Phantom was sucked in without a fight, and before he was sucked in, Skulker deployed his net at Maddie.

“If we go, you go, human woman…” Skulker growled. The net, normally designed to catch ghosts but also capable of ensnaring humans, enveloped Maddie quickly, and she found herself being pulled in as well.

Maddie saw Jack pale, and called out to him and the descending Jazz before a flash enveloped her.

\--

When Maddie awoke, the first thing she registered was a large expanse of green.

She shot up from her lying position upon noticing the sky was a sickly green and not a natural blue as she was accustomed to. Looking around her stomach sank as she took in her surroundings. Floating purple doors and windows of all shapes and sizes. An eerie, blank silence, as though she was the only person left in the entire world. And roaming ghosts from as far as the eye could see.

She was in the middle of the Ghost Zone. She had been sucked in with Skulker and Phantom.

Maddie looked at herself, amazed she could still breathe and didn’t seem to have any ill effects from so much ecto-exposure. A sigh of relief escaped her lips; just being in this place without much protection won’t kill her. Worry temporarily quashed, she took the time to take a better look around.

“So, THIS is the Ghost Zone…” Maddie said to herself. “Well. It’s not exactly what we expected, but just seeing it in person is astonishing!” She wished she had a notepad on her person; being in the Ghost Zone herself was better than any probes the Fentons has previously sent. She couldn’t wait to tell Jack about this when she got home!

Home… that was somewhere she didn’t know how to get to, she realized.

Groaning, Maddie picked herself off of the ground and checked herself over to see if she had any of her weapons on her. She luckily did have her Anti-Creep stick and ecto gun, so she could at least defend herself. She congratulated herself and was about to set off for the Fenton Ghost Portal -wherever it may be- when she heard a soft moan come from behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she was surprised to see Phantom lying on the ground not too far behind her. She’d figured that he would have recovered by now and flown off to his lair (again, wherever it may be). All ghosts have rapid healing abilities and Phantom should be no exception.

What did she care though? A smart decision would be to take off right now before he came around and hurt her; she was in his natural habitat, and he didn’t have a ‘hero’ act to keep up here. But the more she looked at his prone form, the more her subconscious told her something was seriously wrong. After all, if the ghost kid were human, he probably would have died from that many hard blows to the head at once. And though the Zone should have been helping to heal him, it only seemed to provide more ectoplasm for him to bleed.

She decided to see if he was alright. And maybe take a shot at asking him for directions since she had little options.

“Phantom?” She called as she approached him, getting another soft moan. His eyes fluttered open but they were half-lidded and glazed over, like his mind was in another dimension. He blinked a few times and tried to sit up, but couldn’t manage a few inches before falling back over. As he was about to close his eyes again, Maddie got in his face and kicked his foot.

“Phantom, get up,” she commanded. The strangest look appear on his face a few moments later, as if something important dawned on him, before settling into a drunken smile.

Maddie was wasting time waiting for him, so she turned to drastic measures. No ghost could hear the sound of an ecto gun powering up and NOT whip themselves into high gear. So she did just that, pointing the weapon right between the ghost’s eyes.

“Stop wasting my time, Phantom, get up!”

Just as the weapon would have fired, instead of moving, Phantom instead slurred, “Why’s the white thingy cryin’...?” The out of touch response startled her so much she let go of the trigger and shut off the gun in shock. Phantom at least took mild notice of this.

“Thanks… the white thingy… sounned real sad…” As he finished, the ghost closed his eyes, slipping back into ‘unconsciousness’. Surely that wasn’t what it was for ghosts but for now the term will do.

“Phantom?” Maddie asked again, a teeny bit more worry in her tone, more for her source of directions than anything. The ghost boy didn’t stir. Maddie grimaced when she found he was still oozing a considerable amount of ectoplasm from his head, which, combined with his behavior, told her one thing: Phantom was suffering from head trauma, and not of the mild sort.

“Well, isn’t that fantastic…? Ghosts aren’t even supposed to be able to GET concussions!” Maddie kicked the dust off the ground angrily. Phantom was obviously in no condition to help her/be interrogated for directions, and she had no other way to know where in the Zone she was supposed to go to return home.

What was she going to do now?


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maddie's woken up in the Ghost Zone, stuck with the injured and severely dazed Phantom. She now attempts to find a way off of the land mass and back to the Fenton Portal.

“Should I just sit and wait for someone to come and find me…? No, who knows how long that would take…”

Maddie spent what felt like a few good hours pacing back and forth, trying to weigh her options as to how she was going to get out of this mess. It would be good to get under a sort of cover so that hostile ghosts wouldn’t be able to locate her and pick her off, but then a rescue team would have a difficult time finding her. It may not even matter if a search party had no clue of where to look in the first place; she could be anywhere in the Ghost Zone, miles and miles away from her own or even Vlad’s portal; it could take them days to scour through the Zone for her, and by then it would probably be too late.

“Should I try tofind my own way back home?”

She paused her pacing, and took a small walk around the island she was currently stranded on. It was a small mass of land, about 50 across on its lengthiest side. A single, large tree occupied a space near the center and spread to cover a considerable area, able to provide adequate shelter for herself. Other than a place to rest, no food or water was present anywhere on the surface. When she looked over the edge at one point, she was with an endless void, one she certainly didn’t want to fall into; it would surely leave her dead. The closest mass next to the one she was currently on was too far away for her to jump onto without risking falling into the void. Her one escape was certainly impossible…

Unless…

Maddie stopped her walk around the mass to take a gander at Phantom, still unconscious and in the same position she left him. Before she was simply annoyed that the ghost was most likely faking to get out of helping her or to gain sympathy, but now that he was in the same state for a good few hours (she couldn’t be sure, but, again, it sure felt that long), she began to grow anxious at his condition. Phantom, a flighty ghost when humans grew too close, would never stay in the same place so close to her for so long if there wasn’t something wrong with him.

Gearing herself up just in case this really was a trick, Maddie once again grabbed her blaster and stalked over to Phantom.

“Phantom, if this is some kind of game you’re playing, it’s not funny,” she simply stated, glaring and growing angry remembering that it was this very ghost who led her into this mess in the first place. The ghost made no movement; only a gentle rise and fall from his chest was present. Maddie took a step back, amazed at this revelation.

“Is… is he breathing?” Maddie asked herself, placing her ear close. Indeed, the movement was accompanied by the sound of the intake and exhalation of air.

“Ghosts aren’t supposed to be capable of breathing… they have no lungs to do so… right?” It was true that ghosts weren’t supposed to have the organs required to perform a task sure as breathing, especially for doing it unconsciously as a human does. Then again, Phantom already is an abnormal entity; maybe breathing wouldn’t be far off for him, and if so, what other mortal functions was he capable of…?

“That’s a question for another time, Maddie. You need to get him up.” Nodding, she gave Phantom a light slap in the face (she hadn’t noticed it before, but the skin on his face felt eerily real, even which her glove on). Phantom was jarred from his sleep, wincing and moaning in pain. He blearily opened his eyes and blinked slowly up at her in confusion. 

“Blurry lady…?” Phantom meekly asked after a minute, still slurring his words. His head had finally stopped bleeding, but it didn’t change a thing, apparently.

“Quit fooling around and get up. You helped get me into this mess and you’re going to get me out of it even if I have to keep my blaster trained to your head the whole time.” She expected him to cut the act and comply with her instructions. Instead, that goofy smile planted itself on his face once again, accompanied by a snicker. “What’s so funny?” Maddie demanded.

“The white thingy stuck its tongue out atcha… I don’ think it likes you…” Phantom said, pointing at the blaster at Maddie’s side. Seconds later, Phantom whimpered and held the part of his head that housed the now closing head wound. “My head really hurts…” He looked up at the ghost hunter and asked, childlike, “Why’s my head hurt so bad…?”

“He isn’t serious, is he?” Maddie whispered. “He actually IS showing all the hallmarks of a serious concussion for humans. Disorientation, painful headache, slurred speech, dizziness…” She quickly leaned in close to examine his eyes, to see if his pupils would tell her anything. Unfortunately, they did. “... And his pupils are different sizes…”

“ ‘y eyes pretty or somethin’?” Phantom slurred, smile returning to his face. Maddie decidedly ignored him for the time being.

“Phantom, this is serious,” she yelled, and she gripped the sides of his face to at least bring him back some of his sense, her clear, genuinely worried eyes boring into his glazed, unfocused ones. “You’re the only semi-helpful ghost around,” she painfully admitted. “I might not like or completely trust you, but that doesn’t mean I’m deluded to the fact I need you to get out of here. Please tell me what I’m saying at least makes a little sense to you right now.”

“... A little bit…?” Phantom said with voice a tiny bit more clear. Maddie was glad and also intrigued; the prospect of someone in need apparently ‘jump started’ him, as it were. She wasn’t confident in that however; he was still going back to goofily smiling at her ecto blaster for whatever reason.

“There’s no way I’m trusting you to fly me around the Ghost Zone like this, though,” she told him. If he was going to recover faster, she was going to have to egg the process on. Starting with covering that wound up.

Maddie sighed, scoping Phantom up and carrying him off to the cover of the tree. She despised the fact that she had to help her worst enemy, but until she was out of the Ghost Zone, what else was she to do?

She placed Phantom on the shady ground and climbed up the tree to gather leaves. The leaves were odd, but they were suitable as a bandage.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Maddie crouched down and began wrapping the leaves around his head as gauze, shaking him awake whenever he looked to be falling back into unconsciousness. 

“Why’re ya putting slime on my head…?” Phantom blinked at her as she wrapped him up.

“It’s to make sure you heal properly.” With a few finishing touches, her work was complete. “Do you feel any different?”

“... Is there a snake on my head?” She took the response as a no. Deciding this was all she could do for now, she plopped down next to her new charge to rest and stared into the expanse once again. Her thoughts shifted from her escape to Phantom’s physiology, the perfect way to distract herself from the bleakness of her situation.

“Just… how different are you really, Phantom…?” Maddie asked to no one in particular. As she finished her thoughts, she heard a whine. Realizing it wasn’t from Phantom, she scrambled to her feet and grabbed her Anti-Creep Stick.

Rising up into full view from below the island came Skulker with an evil smirk brandished on his face, flying into the scene with a mildly damaged jet pack.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skulker has just appeared to finish what he started! How will Maddie and Danny get themselves out of this situation

Agonizingly slowly, Skulker’s entire body peaked over the edge of the mass, every single weapon that lie embedded in his armor trained to fire at the human and the injured ghost. His smug, overconfident smile never left him, becoming wider as Maddie took in all the blasters and other various devices. The ghost surely had a look of murder she came to expect from most aggressive ghosts.

“So this is where you both’ve been hiding from me… now if you’ll give him to me, I won’t have to spill your blood and splatter it all over Phantom’s body, woman.” Skulker began charging his weapons, holding out his arm so his net was prone. Maddie reached for her own blaster, and out of the corner of her eye saw Phantom lift his head and gaze at Skulker. No goofy remark came from him as he looked, Maddie observed surprisingly, and his glare became as serious as he could make it. 

“Skulker…” Phantom weakly growled, but made no move to get up. Skulker decidedly ignored him and focused his attention on Maddie. She gripped her blaster tightly, keeping it hidden so Skulker wouldn’t catch on too quickly she was armed. She sprang up and pointed the weapon towards the ghost.

“You’re hurting him further over my dead body, ectoplasmic scum…” Maddie said through gritted teeth, unwavering in her weapon training. 

“Protecting Phantom now, as a ghost hunter? After all the efforts you’ve made to destroy him?” Skulker let out a small, humorless chuckle. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.”

Maddie hesitated. She WAS helping her mortal enemy now, wasn’t she? Keeping him from being harmed when she could easily give him to Skulker and be done with the both of them. It didn’t take her two seconds to realize that giving Phantom up wasn’t an option. “He’s my way out of here, ghost. And I don’t need you questioning me about my decisions when you have nothing to do with them. Now get lost!” To make her command clear, she fired a round at him that he barely avoided, missing his Mohawk by an inch.

Taking this as an invitation for war, Skulker moved into battle, firing missiles left and right as Maddie had to dodge quickly to avoid getting hit. Unfortunately, this left the missiles a perfect path to hit Phantom, and Maddie winced as he let out a scream as he got hit. After all, if he can get concussions and breathe like a normal human, surely he can feel pain.

Did he feel pain all those times she and Jack shot at him.

“Why are you thinking about that at a time like this?! And who cares, anyways? If he felt pain, it served him right for terrorizing your town.”

What disturbed Maddie is that she did care, if only a tiny bit. Her wince was proof enough. With any other ghost, she wouldn’t have batted an eye and would have tried to get a shot in herself. Why was Phantom so different?

“It’s just because Skulker is hurting your ride home. If you could get out of here yourself, it wouldn’t matter,” she reasoned in her mind, and she decided to stick to that philosophy as she saw Skulker going for another blast and Phantom’s head wound beginning to weep once again. As Skulker was about to fire, Maddie whacked him hard with the Anti-Creep Stick, enough to send him off backwards a ways and… was that a crack she saw in his chest?

She didn’t another second to consider the meaning behind the crack as a large ecto blast came barreling toward her. It came too fast to dodge, and as the impact was about to come on, another blast from off to the side destroyed it. Both ghost and hunter whipped their heads around to find Phantom, green smoke coming from his hand due to the fresh blast. He wobbled on his feet, and the blast seemed to drain him ever so slightly when such a mid sized blast wouldn’t have normally done so.

“Phantom, you need to stay down!” Maddie scolded, growing irritated that Phantom looked like he wanted to get himself wasted. He saw Skulker sneer from her peripheral vision.

“But I don’ want you getting hurt, blurry lady…” Phantom stumbled a bit, and his voice not only slurred but took on a bit of a sing-song quality to it. The increased ectoplasm loss from that blast wasn’t helping. The next blast was so unsteady, it looked like Phantom didn’t mean to fire it, but it did the job as it impacted Skulker’s chest and widened the crack. Skulker’s smile fell faster than a rock.

“That crack again…” Maddie mused, and she turned over to the wobbling Phantom. “Do you have the foggiest idea why Skulker is cracking?”

“‘Cracking’... Oh yeah, cause he’s a ROBOT ghost… y’know, robot, like BEEP BOOP BEEP! Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto and stuff… y’know robots’re REALLY cool and junk. They have robots in SPACE, y’know! ... I like space...” Phantom said with reckless waves of his arms, and he kept muttering nonsense to himself afterwards. Maddie was about to dismiss the robot explanation as part of it, but Skulker hissing ‘Silence, whelp!’ with an annoyed look on his face told her Phantom wasn’t lying.

“A robotic shell? I’ll admit, that’s very impressive, ghost,” Maddie started, charging a large blast from her ecto gun. Skulker’s eye widened as he realized what would happen next. “Not impressive enough, though.” Maddie fired, and the blast was finally more than the shell could take. The crack widened, and suddenly Skulker was replaced with… a pathetic looking speck.

“You destroyed my suit! How DARE you?! It took me two weeks to make another one!”

“Then I guess this is goodbye.” With the tips of her nails, Maddie scooped Skulker up and punted him far away from the island, the tiny ghost screeching ‘I’LL BE BACK!!!!’ the whole way. The threat taken care of, Maddie turned to Phantom, curled up by the tree slipping back into unconsciousness. She sighed and went over to him, smacking him lightly to keep him awake for just a little longer.

“I’ll admit… without your tip on the robot suit, that would have taken me MUCH longer to do, so, I guess I’ll give you a little credit.” Phantom did nothing but blink, but Maddie didn’t pay it any mind. She did know she was getting exhausted herself and needed a rest, and spent some time climbing the tree, so she could recharge for the trek ahead.

She nodded off without meaning to, missing at least four flashes of light coming from Phantom below.

\--

The whining’s going on again. Why the heck does the white thingy keep crying? Yeah, there’s so much green, it’s making ME a little green, and the blurry lady’s putting slime on my head, but that’s no reason to cry about it. 

I turn my head to look at it when a really loud sonic boom type noise hits my ear holes. Everything sounds really echoey cause my head feels a lot like cotton, though, so I don’t really get all of it.

“So thi… give him to m… lood and sp… Phantom’s ody, woman,” the boom says. Not sure what the boom’s saying, but I heard my name in there, so I at least gotta pretend I’m paying any attention, right? So, yeah, I turn my head again to look and I freeze. A giant fire skeleton is floating right in front of me and blurry lady. I’ve never seen anything so COOL before, I don’t think, but… do I know the fire skeleton?

I wrack my brain to try to figure it out… I know a bunch of monsters… no, no, not monsters, something… something that starts with a ‘g’ I think. Gummy bears, grey goo, geese… ghosts. Yeah, they’re ghosts! And the place is called the ‘Ghost Zone’! And I’M a ghost! 

...wait do I even count?

Danny, get back on topic.

Right, okay, sorry. It’s kinda hard to stay on one thing right now, weird sudden voice in my head.

So everyone here is a ghost. Is the fire skeleton one too? Fire skeleton. Ghost. Skeleton. Skeletons have skulls (I think?) to protect the brain and all that (My skull fails at life then cause my brain feels more fried than a day listening to Jazzy talk about mind stuff.). Skulker’s a fire skeleton guy, right?

Yeah, I think so.

… … Holy crud on a pile of pancakes.

My eyes grow like saucers as it finally clicks who the fire skeleton is. The last thing I knew before waking up in the Ghost Zone (?) is his ugly mug getting in my way while I was trying to leave… somewhere. I can’t exactly remember details, but I know I had to be in a rush for some reason. I try growling at him, but even I know it sounds really weak. I’m really tired...

Anyways, he’s got a bunch of shooty stuff pointed at me and Blurry Lady. (Do I know Blurry Lady, too…?) I can’t just stand around and do nothing! I gotta help her! I try to get up, and then there’s a boom and a really bad pain on my side. Feels like something blew up on it. My body slams against a tree and now there’s a bunch of green gooey stuff coming out of my head again…

AGAIN WITH THE GREEN!

By the way, does anyone smell metal? Cause I smell metal now. Not sure if this is a good thing.

Metal’s real awesome for makin’ stuff. It makes cars and thermoses an’ blood… blood’s gross though, so that shouldn’t count.

Gotta keep blurry lady safe, Danny, stop goofing off. 

Fire skeleton’s shooting at blurry lady again, so I shoot something at him to get back at him for making my head hurt some more. Blurry lady’s telling me to stop, but I don’t wanna! If I do, she’s a goner! I sneeze and I think I shoot another glowy ball at fire skeleton. Hey, his chest is gettin’ all glowy too! That’s totally awesome!

Wait, did she ask me why fire skeleton’s getting cracks? It’s cause he’s a robot, duh! EVERYONE knows he’s a robot.

Fire skeleton turns into fireworks when blurry lady gives him a present and now he’s gone. Aw, why did he have to go...? I wanted to ask him how I could get covered in fire, too!

Blurry lady says something to me, but everything sounds like it’s underwater. Probably something about how my puns always make a ‘splash’. Heh heh, get it? … My clothes are red, white, and blue instead a black and white now, so that’s something. No, wait, back to black again. Weird. Oop, there it goes again! And again! 

Make up your mind, body, do you wanna be human or a ghost? I really wanna be human again, but for some reason, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Think I’ll stick to being a ghost for now, so please stay black and white for me, alright? Or does red, white, and blue, mean ghost and black and white mean human? Eh, I dunno. I’ll just let my gut take care of that one.

Why is everything becoming black again?


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the threat of Skulker is taken care of, our two heroes decide on their next move.

Sometime later, Maddie was awake once more, taking the time to wait for Phantom to come to so they could start on their way out. She couldn’t help but notice the ghost looked awful, more pronounced by him being so defenseless. 

If she didn’t know his hair was normally a flawless white color, she’d think that his hair was green instead. So much of his ectoplasm had pooled out of the single spot, it was staining it. She refused to think of ectoplasm as blood in this instance because so much of it would have made her nauseous. The blast he had taken from Skulker burned part of his jumpsuit off, revealing more of his body underneath and leaving behind more ectoplasm. She wished she knew of existence of some sort of cleaner in this dimension so she could make him look less… damaged would be a good word for it. The ghost muttering in his sleep too, though she couldn’t make out what he was saying.

The worst and more disconcerting part of the whole thing was that Phantom still wasn’t healing. Perhaps as an exchange for helping her with Skulker (despite causing this mess by leading the bigger ghost to Fenton Works in the first place) she would give him an ectoplasm injection or two when she finally made it home.

There she went feeling charitable to this ghost again…

“I have to stop doing that. He’s just a ghost, Maddie. Besides, as different as he may seem, once he’s up to full strength again, he’d probably attack me.” She nodded affirmatively to herself. She couldn’t take that chance if she could avoid it. Simply closing the wounds again with gauze would be enough; ectoplasm has a very high clot rate.

By the time she finished cleaning the ghost up he began to stir, blearily opening his eyes and resting the same incredulous gaze towards Maddie.

“Good mornin’, blurry lady…” Phantom said with a lopsided grin. Maddie winced at being called the name again; she was beginning to find it annoying.

“You can stop calling me that anytime now, Phantom.” 

“Okie dokie, blurry, lady…” The scientist took a sharp breath before addressing Phantom further, lest she be tempted to pile on more damage to his already damaged state. 

“C’mon, up and attem. Who knows how long you’re going to have to fly to get to the Fenton Portal.” Maddie grabbed Phantom’s hand and forced him onto his feet, leaving him to wobble woozily. He leaned on her ever so slightly for support. “Whee, I’m on the tilt-a-whirl again… no lines…” he giggled into her shoulder.

She wasn’t even sure if he could get two inches off the ground in this state, but it was better than nothing.

Maddie carefully guided Phantom towards the south(?) edge of the island, taking one last nervous look down at the bottomless void. It was now or never. Problem was that Phantom once again looked like he didn’t even know what was going on around him. What was it that sprung him into action those other few times?

“The first time he responded to my desperation. The second time, Skulker threatened to attack me. Both cries for help in their own way. Would a similar situation work?” she considered. She saw Phantom giving her more strange looks, but she knew what she had to do to get him going again: put herself in peril. 

Even if she didn’t trust his superhero persona, it was a known fact that whenever he wasn’t fighting with other ghosts and causing massive amounts of property damage, Phantom usually lurked around places where people were in danger such as the odd crime scene or fires, even offering to assist in these situations at times. If he was willing to break through the haze his concussion caused and help her those few times, perhaps trying to assist others when they were in danger was his ghostly obsession. But if so, even if he was really trying to help whether it be to feed his own needs or not, he still had his past crimes to answer for.

She would interrogate him about that later. Right now she needed to see if this was really his obsession or not.

She placed her foot over the edge, just to see if he would react if she pretended to walk off, but the Ghost Zone’s strange gravity properties had other ideas. She began floating, and couldn’t control where she was going.

“Ah!” Maddie cried out in surprise, and Phantom jumped when she did.

“Blurry lady?” He asked her, concern oozing in his tone. Maddie couldn’t exactly tell if it was sincere or not, but it was the reaction she was looking for.

“Phantom, help! I can’t steer myself!” Phantom blinked a few times before shaking his head and flying after her, managing to steady her flight pattern. He was able to make it to the next closest island before running out of stamina and collapsing onto the ground. The two rolled, cushioning their fall and Phantom panted, trying to catch his breath. He sputtered out a cough of ectoplasm before lying down on his stomach.

“About two minutes airborne,” Maddie calculated. “I can work with that. It’ll take longer if I let him rest between flights, but it’s the safest method.”

When he didn’t look like he was going to die a second time anymore, she decided to get him moving. “Phantom, come on, you’ve rested long enough.” She heaved him off the ground, and he leaned heavily onto him. He mumbled something along the lines of ‘okay Blurry Lady’ before steadying himself and grabbing her hand to start flying.

Yet another problem she finally seemed to realize was present: did he not recognize her? If he did, he would have surely started calling her by her name by now; he definitely normally knew it, calling her by her proper name multiple times in their encounters. What if he had amnesia to a certain degree, and if so, what else didn’t he remember? This could be a problem because he could have forgotten where they were supposed to go and was about to lead the two of them around in circles.

The next island they landed on and before they took off again, she decided to make sure.

“Tell me something, alright?” She suddenly asked as he picked himself up once more. He cocked his head at her and grunted in question. “And tell me the truth; I can tell when you’re lying.” He nodded as vigorously as he could without rattling his head around. This was normally a bluff she used when she was interrogating ghosts, but this time she actually felt she could read him. It was significantly made easier when he was in such a state though; that could have helped.

“Do you actually know who I am?”

Phantom looked taken aback by the question. Perhaps he wasn’t really thinking about it until now, Maddie thought privately. A look of reflection spread across his features, and for the sake of reducing fights, she held back on questioning his emotive capabilities.

After a few minutes, her answer came: “Not really… I’m sorry…”, Phantom said like a child being scolded. Maddie simply nodded, expecting at least this, and she was about to question him further when he continued.

“I do remember some stuff though! You like wearing that weird blue thing all the time, an’ there’s this big guy that follows you all the time! What was his name…? Jacob? James? Jerry…?”

“Jack?” Maddie answered, hoping to jog a bit of his memory.

“No, no, it was George! Yeah, his name was George!” Phantom cried, grinning from ear to ear. He pulled back a bit when getting too excited hurt him once again. Pausing for a minute, he continued. “An’ I remember your name starts with a… an ‘M’. I think it was Molly or somethin’...” Phantom concluded, scratching his head. Maddie was satisfied that he at least knew something; he would most likely remember her, and hopefully he wouldn’t run off in fear of being hunted as usual when he finally did. She would ask again when he was less loopy.

“Do you remember how to get to the Fenton Portal?” she further pressed.

“Mmm… yeah! It’s past Mr. Boxy’s lair!”

Mr. Boxy…? ... The Box Ghost. Oh, no, not him… Maybe they would be fortunate enough to not run into him.

“Yeah, yeah, I know where to go from here, I think… You cut through the place with all the icky yellow gunk and make a right turn at Fire Skeleton’s girlfriend’s place, then get far away from Boxy’s lair and it’s an hour away from there! It’s a long way though…”

He had no idea what he was talking about besides with ‘Mr. Boxy’ but he at least sounded coherent. That was a good sign.

“Well, come on. Let’s get moving.” Maddie hung onto Phantom as she prompted him to get on with their trip.

And so their adventure to get back to Amity Park truly began.


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo are on there way to the Fenton Portal, but who's to say Danny realy knows the way?

The two of them traveled for hours within the vast expanse of the Ghost Zone, and still there was no ‘icky yellow gunk’ to be found. Maddie was beginning to think that the entire route was just another thing Phantom made up in that delirious mind of his. After all, within minutes, he began contradicting himself and calling the ‘gunk’ every color under the sun, from blue to orange to pink to the number 5 (he was REALLY talking nonsense at the time). ‘Fire Skeleton’s’ girlfriend, in addition to Maddie having doubts to her existence with a tiny body like his, didn’t yet have a concrete name. Phantom eventually settled on Fire Chick and nothing else had been said on the subject since. The only thing visibly recovering was how long he was able to stay airborne; he was now able to reach up to 5 minutes at a time instead of two.

Maddie wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth; it might not be extending to his mind yet, but he was at least starting to get better.

Phantom’s delirium stopped being a suitable travel show two hours in, so Maddie resigned to observing the various ghosts they passed by. She was surprised to find how civil society appeared to be in the area they were currently drifting aimlessly about. Ghosts didn’t attack them there, only shooting them passing glances at most and many paid them no mind. In fact a few even seemed to shrink away from them as they passed through, as if their presence was a bad omen. She managed to catch a few whispers from one of the frightened pairs of spirits as Phantom stopped on another island to rest. 

In her slightly superior thinking, Maddie thought that they were afraid of her, a ghost hunter that was supposed to strike fear into the heart of any ghost she came across. She was mistaken.

“What the heck is Phantom doing here…?” a blue ghost said, shivering slightly at the sight of the white haired ghost.

“He shouldn’t have a reason to be on this side of the Ghost Zone; we don’t even want to take over the world around here…!” the green ghost next to him said back.

Completely ignoring their admission to leave the human world alone, Maddie fumed privately for a second. They were more scared of Phantom than they were of the armed ghost hunter?! But he was their own kind! He wasn’t even in his own haunt at the moment; what reason did he have to strike fear into their non-existent hearts?! She had to get a clue to the answer, and so kept listening closely to their hushed conversation.

“Maybe if we turn invisible he won’t notice us…”

“You, idiot, he can still see us… He’s a ghost too, you know…” 

“Yeah, but not entirely, remember? He’s also a halfa.”

The blue ghost’s response caught her off guard, and she momentarily stopped listening and got lost in her own thoughts. ‘Not entirely?’ Surely, he was completely a ghost; it wasn’t possible for a ghost to be a combination of ghosts and something else. Ghosts were spirits of the dead. A living being couldn’t possibly be part spirit of the dead…

...but when Maddie thought about it a little more, it began making sense. Phantom was capable of emotions, actions, and apparently even injuries that should be impossible for regular ghosts. Could being a hybrid of a living being with the dead allow Phantom to exhibit these traits, in turn making all of Phantom’s actions… genuine? It was yet another thing she and Jack would have to go over when they eventually got out of there

And if Phantom was a hybrid, then what was he mixed with? All signs pointed to human since he was the most humanoid appearing ghost she had ever seen, but in theory he could be anything. Did the word they used, ‘halfa’, provide any sort of clues?

So many things to discover, it frustrated her.

By the time she resurfaced from her thoughts, Phantom was gone, and she was left floating by herself.

“What?! Where did he go?!” Maddie exclaimed, partially in both surprise and outrage. Had he ditched her when he saw she wasn’t paying attention?! Was he waiting for the right moment so he could escape?! Was the concussion a facade?! All of these questions and more ran through her mind, but quickly dissipated as she saw where Phantom ended up.

The two ghosts were currently trying to run away as the still-clearly-out-of-it Phantom chased them, that same goofy smile on his face as before.

“BUT I WANNA KNOW IF YOU TASTE LIKE APPLE AND TOOTHPASTE!”

“We aren’t gummy bears, Phantom!” the green ghost attempted to explain as he tried in vain to run away from the clueless (hybrid) ghost. Phantom didn’t give up, and even pushed himself beyond the five-minute limit he had currently established to try to get a bite at them. He stopped after a good ten minutes, and tumbled onto the closest island where Maddie was waiting in exhaustion. The two ghosts hid behind a rock, and as Phantom plopped down, Maddie could see two flashes emanate from the ghost’s body before fading a split-second later each time. She had never seen Phantom do that before, but with all the other revelations with him that were piling up, this looked the least significant, so she ignored it for now.

Phantom swayed as he barely picked himself off of the ground, dizzily. “Did I get ‘em…?” he asked, Maddie shaking her head as she noticed he might have made himself worse.

“No. No, you didn’t.”

“Dang… an’ the blue one looked like blue raspberry flavor…” Phantom said woefully, lying completely down and catching his breath (which it was evident he now needed to do after all). With Phantom downed, Maddie took the opportunity to try to get directions. Better to be safe than sorry.

“Ghosts!” Maddie called, getting the other two spirits’ attention. “Do you, by chance, know the way to the Fenton Portal?”

“F-Fenton Portal…?” the blue ghost said, emerging his head from his hiding spot. “Y’mean the place all ghosts go to leave this joint?”

‘All ghosts’...? Maddie didn’t even want to consider the implications of that at the moment.

“Yes, that. We’re trying to get back into the human world. Do you both know where it is?”

“Yeah, sure, since you’re takin’ Phantom with you,” the green ghost answered. “You keep going straight from here until you reach Walker’s Prison. You’ll know you’re there when you see a bunch of walls and searchlights. The second you see that, make a sharp left as fast as you can and then go a fair distance around a giant floating football. That leads to Plasmius’ lair. You do NOT want to go near that place.

“Keep going straight from there until you reach Ember’s lair and then turn right. After another few hours, you’ll get to where Youngblood plays all the time and the Fenton Portal is a few minutes away. The whole thing’ll take three days if you’re going reasonably quick.”

It most likely WOULDN’T be reasonably quick, but at least Maddie knew the right way to go. She never thought she’d be taking directions from ghosts, whose only ulterior motive seemed to be getting Phantom away from them no less. Where did Phantom pull his own directions from, she wondered. He got the ‘Ember’s lair’ part, presumably Fire Chick, right though, so it had to be based on some memory.

After Phantom had recovered once again, Maddie thanked the two ghosts for proper directions and had Phantom continue. He luckily didn’t jostle his head further, so he was the same as before. Maybe Maddie would be lucky and the ghost wouldn’t be too incoherent to ask.

“Pha--”

“I wonder if we’ll fin’ MORE gummy bears…” Phantom said as he made his way forward, completely cutting Maddie’s question off.

Nope. Still too out of it.

And why was his body still flashing?


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now on the right track, Danny 'attempts' to think over their situation

I’m getting pretty mad at Blurry Lady for making me stay away from any of the gummy bears that we pass after she did it for, like, the bajillianth time in a row. I mean COME ON… I’m hungry and those gummy bears are floating all over the place and being really scrumptious looking. It’s THEIR fault, I tell ya! Surely ONE nibble couldn’t hurt. It’s not like they can feel pain or anything. They don’t look like ghosts to me. Then again NOTHIN’ looks right to me, so what do I know?

I dunno, I’m beginning to feel like something’s seriously wrong with me. My head is still pounding from whatever Fire Skele-- er… Skulker right?… did to me. I thought it was gonna go away after a while, but now I can’t ignore it. It’s like some kind of background annoyance to all the fun stuff I’m seeing, like the gummys. Starting to wonder if this is all real or if it’s some kind of strange dream mumbojumbo. Could the gummy bears be… something NOT sugary and delicious?

Nah, that’s crazy talk! The purple monkey elephant said so!

‘Hi Danny!’

“Hi, purple monkey elephant!”

Why the heck is blurry lady looking at me like I’mma some kinda whack job? He’s right in front of us. Not like Blurry Lady’s sight’s all blurry too.

Why do I keep calling her Blurry Lady if I can see her fine now?

‘Well, you did say that you didn’t remember her all that much. Gotta call her something, don’tcha?’

“Yeah, that makes too much sense! Thanks, purple monkey elephant!” I say back to my big earred, long-tailed friend. Blurry Lady’s giving me the look again.

“What?” I say to her when she won’t stop staring at me. 

“Who are you talking to? We’re the only two around.”

“You need ta get your eyes checked, Blurry Lady. There're folks all around us! We just passed by the purple monkey elephant a second ago, the ten headed palm tree, we passed like HOURS a go. You shoulda seen him by the way, he wrote you a love letter! Oh, and then there’s the funky rock and roll turkey. He’s following us right now, see?!”

I look back and wave to my super cool, feathered friend who tries whacking me with his guitar. I’m a GHOST silly, you can’t hit a ghost with a guitar! … Unless you’re Fire Chick. She can hit whoever she wants with a guitar.

“Then there’s Chef Flopsolopsle! He’s actually a pug-munk who wears this really cool looking tire mark tattoo all the time on his back, but he CALLS himself flopsolopsle because he says it makes him sound cute and because it doesn’t sound like a word. Then there’s--”

“Slow down, I can hardly understand what you’re saying.” Blurry Land hugs my shoulders with her hands and gives me that look again. Aw… I LOVE hugs! I decide to give her back just as a thank you.

“I love you too, Blurry Lady!” She makes a funny noise and then starts poking me. It gets to the point where it tickles too much, so I let go after a few minutes. I’m a very ticklish person, y’know. She tells me to get flying again, and really, how can I argue with such a kind woman with a white thingy that I’m pretty sure is meant to hurt me for some reason I can’t point my finger to? I scoop her and fly for a little while longer.

“By the way, it’s Maddie.”

Wait, what?

I look down at her, and she’s giving me a different really weird look. Like, she’s not angry-looking, but she almost looks confused for some reason.

Can’t be more confused than me.

“Hmm?” I ask, trying more to find out about her face than what she said.

“Earlier you were having a hard time remembering my name. It’s Maddie.”

Oh, yeah… yeah, I WAS wondering about that earlier, wasn’t I? I blink a few times, thinking about all the other options I was thinking of for her before speaking.

“Are you sure it wasn’t Molly? You look a lot like a Molly to me.”

“I’m 100% positive, ghost.”

“Alright… But can I call you ‘Molly’?”

“Don’t push your luck, Phantom.”

I pout, finding it a little weird that she’s probably gonna want me to start calling her ‘Maddie’ instead of ‘Blurry Lady’. I dunno, ‘Blurry Lady’ sounds a little better to me for some reason. More fun sounding. Less completely awkward like in a ‘I shouldn’t be calling her by her first name’ kinda way. Still, I guess I’m gonna have to deal.

“Alright, B-... eh, Maddie,” I tell her, correcting myself mid-sentence. She smiles and finally looks away from me. I get tired after a while longer of flying and eventually I have to take a break again.

“You’re getting better and better at flying,” Maddie says when I land, nodding. “And you’re beginning to sound a little more coherent too. That must mean your advanced healing is starting to kick in. You probably won’t need an ectoplasm injection at this rate.”

“I barely have any idea what you just said, but I know what injections are and I’m glad I don’t need one,” I say back. I shake a little at the thought of a needle needing to touch me. I have a friend who doesn’t like needles either… Tanner…? Buck…? Tusca-- Tucker! It was Tucker! I think all the talk he does all the time about doctors sorta made me squeamish around ‘em too. She looks at me funny yet again, but stops as soon as she started.

“Let’s rest here for the night. I can hardly keep my eyes open.” Maddie takes a rock over by a nearby hill and I take the top of a shady tree. My body starts flashing again a bit after I settle down. Still not entirely sure what it means, but deep in me, I KNOW now to let Maddie see what happens. She’s asleep by the time my colors start changing back and forth again, so I don’t worry too much about it. Whenever my clothes turn white instead of black, sharp pains in my head start and go away as soon as they turn black again.

Kay, now I’m SURE red, white, and blue means human, and that the pain is a good sign I should probably stick to being a ghost.

I yelp when they shift again, and sigh when I turn black and white and STAY like that. The flashing doesn’t stop until a bit after though.

Whelp, time for me to get some shut e-- Aw, sweet, more gummy bears!

Gummy bears with sticks.

...Angry gummy bears with sticks… coming from a floating box… with a giant white gummy wearing a fedora and a skull mask chuckling behind them.

Uh, oh…


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the two stop to rest on a new land mass, a new threat appears before them

Maddie lied down and groaned as she sat down onto a large boulder nearby. Her back constantly being at a bent angle from Phantom carrying her was starting to become painful. She got up a few times and stretched before finally finding a comfortable position to rest.

“Wish there was a gentler way for him to hold me…” Maddie muttered under her breath, turning her head slightly to said traveling buddy to gaze at his position just under the tree top. Phantom luckily wasn’t doing anything she had to pay any attention to; the ghost boy merely was getting settled down, wincing from time to time when a tree branch dug into his back. She was glad that the worst of the ghost’s mental affliction appeared to be fading. Though he had a while to go before he was his moderately less irritating self again according to those… odd hallucinations from just a few hours earlier, his healing factor was slowly affecting his mind.

“If he tries running away on me when he’s completely back, he’ll be making a death wish,” Maddie confirmed to herself as she settled into lying completely on her back. Although she wasn’t entirely sure how being alive worked for him. Could being a halfa simply mean that he’s dead and the other halfa is giving him traits no other ghost has? Or, is he, even stranger, not entirely dead?

“I guess now, either way, I’ll have to seriously reconsider my hunting of him, even if he does have things to answer for. Hunting something that isn’t entirely dead isn’t exactly humane.”

Once again, as she mentally prepared herself to nap, her thoughts rested on the state of her loved ones. How long had she been gone, really? These ‘hours’ were only generalizations based on her own internal clock, which was slowly becoming dulled and irrelevant due to being away from a running clock for so long. 

However long it had been, her family HAD to be looking for her by now. There was no possible way Jack couldn’t have started searching the minute she disappeared, hopefully getting the kids out of the house before he did so. Though she wouldn’t be particularly upset if he took them with in a rush, if only for this one time. She wanted to see Jazz and Danny once again as well, after all.

“I’ll get back home, Jack. I promise,” she assured herself, nodding as her resolve to return hardened. She would see them again soon enough if she had anything to say about it.

Out of the corner of her eye to her left, she saw a large floating structure stationed not too far away the island they were on, adorned with black bricks and covered by a large wall and spotlights. A large prison, by the looks of it.

“That must be the prison those ghosts were talking about!” Maddie shot up, feeling both excited and concerned at once. Excited because they were on the right track and were getting closer to their end goal. Concerned because it was a giant prison, and she recalled the two ghosts cringing at mentioning the ghost who resides there, Walker.

She felt that they needed to pack up and hit the road quickly, but Phantom wasn’t in the best shape. He was tired from his continuous flight and needed a break, and Maddie wasn’t about to deprive him of one if it meant a safe trip in the long run. She would have to wait until he was rested enough to continue. Besides, if any ghosts gave them trouble, she could easily fight them off herself.

Satisfied with her plan of action, she once again settled down, closing her eyes and intending to rest when she felt a flash from her right side assault her closed lids. She cracked open her right eye and saw Phantom’ body flashing once again.

“I wonder if that’s one of his powers or if it’s just a result of his injuries…” Maddie thought quietly to herself. Phantom suddenly shot his head back in her direction, and she closed her eyes to make it seem like she was asleep. When she didn’t feel his stares anymore, she cracked open her eye and was left speechless at the display that came.

Periodically, accompanying the flashes was a change in appearance. A disturbingly familiar change in appearance. 

His hair would become a natural jet black instead of unnatural bright white, the green ectoplasm stains becoming a brownish-red, the color of dried blood. Instead of his jumpsuit, it would shift into a basic pair of jeans and a white t-shirt with red ends, a pair of red and white sneakers instead of white boots. The t-shirt specifically was a highlight, the one her youngest usually wore nearly every single day. She KNEW it was Danny’s shirt specifically because she had never seen anyone else wear a shirt like it. 

The hybrid’s aura would disappear every time he shifted into this form, followed by him clutching his head and crying out in pain. The cry had no echo quality to it, leaving a definitively human voice behind. There was no mistaking who Phantom was shifting into, and she didn’t like it one bit.

“... Danny?” Maddie whispered to herself, her hand slowly moving over her mouth in shock and disbelief.

She then hurriedly came up with a second thought, in a desperate attempt to keep a whole slew of dark, frightening thoughts from unwantedly assaulting her due to finding out what she really didn’t want to know: Maybe she was beginning to hallucinate as well. After all, she had no idea how long she was stuck in the Ghost Zone, and she really missed her family, so perhaps she was projecting the closest in resemblance to Phantom onto the ghost?

She laughed lightly, albeit awkwardly, at the notion. It just HAD to be a twisted hallucination of her own making. There was no other explanation. How would Danny have become a ghost in the first place? He had no interest in their line of work whatsoever and couldn’t have been exposed to enough ectoplasm to make him part-ghost. He’s the most non-combative teenager she had ever seen, too; there was no way her little boy would be willing to go out and be around ghosts on a regular basis. There was no way he could--

Maddie’s train of thought was interrupted when she noticed Phantom’s cycle of ‘transforming’ had stopped, and he had grown quiet. A small sigh escaped his lips and he settled down. Why he was feeling pain when it was a solution was easy still for Maddie to simply write off: he still had his concussion. It was probably coming back to him now that he wasn’t focused on flying.

Just as Maddie finally settled down, she froze, the surrounding area all at once becoming even colder. A sick feeling crept up her back, and she turned towards the prison, nearly falling off of her rock when she saw about 50 ghosts clad in prison guard attire and wielding batons coming their way.

“The flashing must have alerted them,” Maddie concluded, and she got up and dove to take cover when one of the ghosts threw their baton at her light a boomerang. She cursed, and got her ecto gun ready to use. She looked up to warn Phantom, spying his wary and somewhat rage-filled stare towards the group’s leader that she presumed to be Walker. Even at the considerably far distance they were from each other, Maddie could see Walker was one of the meanest looking ghosts she had ever encountered. Many of these ghosts she had seen so far qualified to be under the description, most making a ghost as potentially dangerous as Phantom look like a kitten when it came to appearance. At least Phantom had the decency to look like a glowing teenager.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite rule-breaking punk…” Walker said in a vaguely Southern sounding accent, a sneer clear in his voice. Maddie poked her head out and spotted him easily in the crowd, carrying a megaphone to speak with so he could be heard from far in the back.

“You’re trespassing on private property, Phantom,” the ghost continued, “MY private property. I suggest you start clearing out within the next 5 seconds before I bring you in to continue that little 1000 year sentence you still have on your head.”

“I don’ really feel like it, Skull Gummy. ‘Sides, I don’t see your name anywhere around here,” Phantom said nonchalantly, lounging on the tree branch with his hands behind his head. Each one of the ghosts present glared daggers at him, and Maddie was internally screaming for him to comply so they didn’t have to get into an unnecessary brawl. Her gun only had so many rounds and Phantom wasn’t in the best shape to fight.

“Are you crazy…?!” she hissed privately, then groaned when the smaller ghost started floating to the group in an awkward strut. He seriously had no qualms for his personal safety against other ghosts in this state, Maddie realized, getting her gun ready to make a diversion.

“I was going to do this the civil way for a change, but for you, I’ll make an exception,” Walker said as he walked up to the front of the group, soon after snatching Phantom off of the ground with one hand and turning to carry him off.

“Hey, lemme go! I don’ wanna go with you to your sugar lab! They make poison butterfly skunk nips in there!”

Walker stopped momentarily, and he and the rest of the ghosts seemed stunned at the string of words that flew out of his mouth.

“Boy, have you lost it?” One of the guards said to Phantom, the others simultaneously scratching their heads.

“Lost what, the poison butterfly skunk nips? Nah, they’re in the back of that tree. They like playing poker on Tuesdays.” It was right then that Walker started maliciously chuckling, the others not getting what was so funny.

“I think the other inmates will find you very ‘entertaining’. Least I don’t have to worry about him trying to escape,” Walker said with a cold smile to the others, starting his stride back to the prison once again. Maddie decided enough was enough and shot at Walker’s hand just as he was about to float off the safety of the island. Phantom fell with a yelp, and Maddie made a swift jump to catch him, exposing herself.

“Humans inside of the Ghost Zone are strictly against the rules, ma’am…” Walker growled once he shook his hand off and found her.

“Then we’ll just be taking our leave,” Maddie calmly said, trying to get the stunned Phantom ready to make a quick exit.

“Too little too late after assaulting an officer of the law…” Walker snapped his finger and the whole of the guard army surrounded them. “We’ll be taking you in the fun way, by force! Get’m, boys!”

Maddie moved fast, thwacking through the army with the Anti-Creep stick while carrying Phantom on her back and making a run for it, making sure that the young ghost was safe from any of their grips. A ghost made an effort to try to whack her in the head with a baton, and when he tried blocking him, another ghost came in and attacked her. She felt the pain instantly but tried to keep going, quickly becoming overwhelmed. Just as she was about to take a hard hit, the baton passed right through her. Maddie was momentarily confused until she noticed her body had become transparent. She looked back and Phantom was concentrating, making them both intangible and panting when he couldn’t hold the effect anymore.

“Thanks a lot, Phantom,” she said as she blasted through an opening in the group, though she wasn’t entirely sure he heard her. She bounded, trying her best to make it before the downed spirits closed the gap.

Unfortunately, the gap was closed by Walker himself, and Maddie ran right into him.

“Pretty impressive reflexes for a human,” he said as he grabbed Maddie. “Pity it had to go to a trouble making ghost hunter.”

“Let go of me!” Maddie screamed, frustrated she couldn’t reach any of her weapons. Phantom was left lying by himself, looking up fearfully towards her while other ghosts slowly surrounded them. Escape at that point appeared pretty bleak…

...until Phantom started glowing blue.

Maddie jumped in surprise and Phantom, eyes engulfed in an icy blue glow with an intense glare and frosted breath, stomped onto the ground, ice forming where his foot touched it. Not only did any ghost who touched him at that point become encased in solid frost, but the ice on the floor snaked into anyone left behind who didn’t, including Walker.

No matter how much Walker struggled, he couldn’t break the solid substance creeping up and freezing him in place. It encased him in a tomb, stopping short of Maddie so she wouldn’t join them.

“I had no idea he had an ice core…” Maddie marveled, stunned at the impressive display. The glow stopped and returned to its faint white color, and Phantom was left to collapse onto his hands and knees. Using the power had clearly taken a toll on him.

She motioned to go and take a look at him when the flashing started again, as well as the shifts in appearance. Only this time, the shift that gave him the appearance of her son lasted a lot longer. He yelped and clutched his head tightly, his eyes clamped shut. It had to have been torturous for him.

“Are you alright?!” She yelled, but he didn’t seem to have noticed her. The yelling slowly stopped, and a severely dazed looking image of her son was left behind. Following that, the boy fainted, falling onto his stomach. Maddie shook him but received no response, noticing he no longer felt like a ghost at all, but rather warm, just like a human.

Just like her son…

He had never flickered back into Phantom either.

“B-But… but he can’t be…” Maddie started, words quickly dying in her throat.

“Maddie, don’t be ridiculous. Surely you had to notice how similar Danny’s voice is to Phantom’s, even with the slurs and yelps, and even the echoes. Their appearance, as well. When you boil it down to basic structures, there is no mistaking it. You must accept it,” the rational part of her forced her to reason. And it was right. Now that she knew, she HAD to accept it, as well as all the implications if she was going to move forward.

Her son, Danny Fenton, was Danny Phantom.

Her son, Danny Fenton, was the ghost she had been hunting and trying to destroy the whole time, Danny Phantom.

The reason her son, Danny Fenton, steered clear from them and was so elusive as her ‘mortal enemy’, Danny Phantom, wasn’t because he wasn’t interested in terrorizing them. It was because he was trying to avoid the angry ghost hunters, his own PARENTS, that were trying to capture and destroy him.

And because her ‘mortal enemy’, Danny Phantom, had a major, debilitating concussion, one could only draw the conclusion that her baby, Danny Fenton, was suffering from the same concussion, very much likely in an even worse off state due to his Phantom side protecting him to an extent.

And he had just passed out… unmoving and unresponsive and probably slipping into a coma while she was just standing there doing nothing!

But, why change back now…? She mentally slapped herself. Ectoplasm! He had just exhausted all of his ectoplasm in the attack! That was why he couldn’t hold the transformation anymore, and why his healing was slow to begin with, because he lost so much!

Thinking fast, she did the only thing she realistically could: she ran over to the rock and broke open her gun, snatching the purified ectoplasmic fuel cell for it. She opened the cell and carefully lifted Danny’s head, getting him to drink its contents. As soon as it metabolized, he twitched, cracking open his eyes while not being entirely awake. He blinked slowly about twice before abruptly shifting back into Phantom and passing out again, luckily (hopefully this was a good thing) remaining as a ghost. 

After performing a few tests to make sure he was just unconscious and not in a coma, Maddie finally relaxed, carrying him off to the other side of the island where Walker couldn’t find them when he unfroze. The ectoplasm was purified, so it would last awhile. Plus, she had more cells if he needed it. She knew was that he would need more when they got back, though. And to go to the hospital, of course.

Maddie reveled in the fact she was going to enjoy hunting down that Skulker for this personally when this was all over.

She put even that aside soon after thinking it to get back to the important fact: her 15-year-old son was Phantom. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

At least it answered the question on what his other half was. She was now 100% confident that it was human.

Maddie was going to wait for him to wake up confront him, make him turn back into human so she could properly praise, scold, hug, and question him all at once, to make him see that she was sorry for all she and Jack did, when she remembered a few things, things that would make the response not a wise choice.

\- Turning human was NOT an option. He had almost fallen into a coma now, and he could again.

\- He couldn’t remember her. As much as that very fact pained her, confronting him right now would probably scare him, and it would confuse him more than anything. She couldn’t have that; letting his mind properly heal was the best course of action.

\- The fact that he kept this from her for so long held significance. It meant he wasn’t ready to share with her, and seeing how he was partially a ghost with ghost hunter parents, she understood. She needed time to fully ease herself into knowing and become at least semi-comfortable with it (though she could never be fully comfortable knowing she’s chased down her own son for so long, let alone the fact that he was apparently not entirely alive), so that when she finally talked to him about this, he wouldn’t have to be scared, and could be more open with her.

Until they were in a better position and Danny was coherent enough to hold a meaningful conversation with her, at least in his ghost form, she would keep the fact that she knew the truth a secret. They could take as long as they needed to get back, so long as Danny had time to heal. 

Until then, she would keep him safe at all costs. No ghost would lay a hand on her boy while she was still standing.


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As our two heroes recover from fighting Walker, we cut to the situation back at Fenton Works, and how Jazz and Co. worked on their end.

12 Hours Earlier

“Jack! Jazz!” was what Jazz was greeted with as she went down to check the commotion in the living room, only to see her mother be sucked into a portal and Jack holding the Fenton Bazooka.

“Dad, what happened?!” Jazz yelled towards her father when she recovered from the initial shock. He was frozen, mouth agape as he realized what he just did, slowly lowering the Bazooka out of its stiff position.

“Blasted ghost…” Jack muttered under his breath before turning to his daughter with a sheepish but guilty all the same smile. “Well, Jazzerincess, I… blasted your mother into the Ghost Zone by mistake…?” He winced when she inevitably screamed ‘WHAT?!’ at the top of her lungs. “It was a force of habit!”

“Who knows where she ended up!” Jazz cried in frustration. The pouty face Jack made her feel sorry for yelling, and it got her to calm down. “Sorry, I snapped, Dad, but Mom could be in trouble!”

“... I GOT IT!” Jack suddenly said, 

And she had a sick feeling that she knew where he was going with this.

Breaking into a fast run, she made her way down to the lab where she caught sight of Jack hopping into the Specter Speeder by himself, an open portal in front of him and surely without any means of tracking Maddie.

“Dad, where are you going!?” Jazz said as she hurriedly climbed down the stairs, trying to get to him in time.

“I’m gonna go find your mother! You’re in charge! Call Danny and tell him to come home! And don’t touch my emergency ham!” 

“You don’t know where she is!”

“Oh, I’ll find her. As long as she’s still with that dang ghost kid, I’ll get her back in no time.” he told Jazz.

“‘Ghost kid’...?” Jazz questioned under her breath. Now, surely Jack didn’t mean Danny. Danny was still sleeping over with Sam and Tucker. He wasn’t going to come home until tomorrow morning. He couldn’t have--

Jack suddenly stuck his body out the window, lifted a Fenton Booooo-merang and pointed it to the portal. He hadn’t tried the Booooo-merang for himself, but no time like the present. “Find Phantom!” he yelled into it, and the invention began tracking the ghost down. If Maddie wasn’t with him, there would be trouble. 

Jazz’s blood ran cold the moment Jack got the Booooo-merang working. Danny didn’t… get sucked in too, did he?

The man waved jovially and took off into the void of the Ghost Zone, forgetting to close the portal behind him. Before Jack was even gone, Jazz raced back upstairs and made a call to Sam’s house.

“Hello, Sam? It’s me, Jazz. Is Da--”

“Jazz?!” A panicked Sam called from near the destroyed front door. “Are Skulker and Danny h-- holy crap…” Sam looked around at the destruction with mouth agape due to the magnitude, and Tucker couldn’t even manage to speak at first when he arrived behind Sam seconds later.

“So… I take it we’re on the right track?” Tucker said meekly to Sam. Jazz shook her head, for their presence confirmed what she didn’t want confirmed. 

“You two are gonna wanna sit down for this.” Jazz said, patting the couch as she carefully broke the news to her brother’s best friends.

\--

“Danny’s trapped in the Ghost Zone with his mom?!” the younger teens yelled in unison, before glancing at each other, then looking back to Jazz.

“I know, it’s a bit shocking. Danny wasn’t supposed to be home, so I have no idea why he was here. Was there a ghost attack?”

“He was fighting Skulker,” Sam quickly pointed out, “We didn’t see where the fight ended up though because he got launched towards here so quickly.”

“Skulker really wasn’t fooling around. Danny went at like 200 miles per hour from one punch!” Jazz winced and Sam glared at Tucker, who didn’t think he said anything wrong.

“What, he did.”

“You guys need to tell me what happened,” Jazz said simply after recovering. Sam and Tucker both nodded, and Tucker began recounting what they caught of what happened earlier that morning.

\--

_It started out as a simple Saturday morning, with the Trio arguing over what they were going to make themselves for breakfast that would satisfy everyone. It was pretty early, Tucker waking them all up by forgetting to turn off the school alarm on his PDA. Sam wanted everyone to try something she called soy-con. Tucker was appalled to say the least._

_“What’s so bad about soy-con, anyways? At least it’s not artery clogging garbage like actual bacon. Plus, it tastes amazing,” Sam said, crossing her arms satisfied. “You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”_

_“As a meat connoisseur, Sam, I would know. Plus I’m never eating any of that soy stuff again. I remember last month when you tried tricking me into eating a tofu burger and I was sick for a week.”_

_“That’s only because the Nasty Burger didn’t cook it right!”_

_“Guys, can we please just drop it…?” the still-tired Danny muttered in the midst of their arguing. There was no way he was going to sit through another meat vs. veggies argument. Both of them blinked at him, and huffed dejectedly. “Fine,” they said in unison._

_“Thank you…”_

_“Well, how about french toast?” Tucker suggested._

_“As long as mine’s made with my yogurt,” Sam said, not wanting another argument this early in the morning either, and as the group finally agreed on something (the ‘group’ being Sam and Tucker with Danny willing to try anything), Danny’s ghost sense went off._

_“That’s gonna have to wait, you guys.” The halfa shifted into his ghost form and flew outside before Sam and Tucker followed with weapons and a Thermos._

_When Danny got outside, he was met with a missile aimed for his head, luckily going right past him and landing on the ground. The gardener the Manson’s would inevitably hire would have a field day with the area left behind._

_“Well, good morning to you TOO, Skulker,” Danny said sarcastically._

_Skulker remained uncharacteristically silent, only smirking increasingly widely at the younger ghost._

_“What, did all that blowing hot air mess with your vocal cords or something?”_

_“If only that would happen to you so none of us would have to hear your ‘witty banter’,” Skulker said finally, smile widening further. Danny got into a fighting position, while Skulker pressed a button on his suit. A mist spread around the area. Instinctually, Sam and Tucker held their breath, finding that the mist didn’t affect them when they couldn’t hold it anymore. By the looks of it, it affected Danny though._

_“Hey… what is this stuff…?” Danny wobbled as his hovering became unsteady, words slurring ever so slightly._

_“A ectoplasmic suppressor gas. Something to soften you up for the hunt this time around. It doesn’t affect me because I’m safe inside my suit, but you, on the other hand, have no such protection.” As Danny dropped like a rock, Skulker blasted him into a wall, and the fight truly began. Unfortunately, Sam and Tucker didn’t get to see it or even act to help their friend because Skulker shot Danny into downtown Amity Park like a rocket, and within seconds the two ghosts were nowhere to be found._

\--

“They were both gone so fast, it nearly gave the two of us whiplash trying to track them. I guess when Skulker doesn’t have a moving target, his weapons pack a punch,” Tucker concluded.

“We need to go into the Ghost Zone and get to Danny quickly. His mom can seriously hurt him when he DOESN’T have something messing up his ectoplasm in him,” Sam said, rising up from the couch and moving to go down to the lab. Jazz grabbed her arm and stopped her, wincing at the questioning glare Sam shot towards her.

“About that… funny story! Dad... sorta took the Speeder already?” Jazz reluctantly explained, laughing nervously. To say Sam was frustrated was an understatement.

“Well, what the heck are we supposed to do now?!” Sam cried. No one had any clue of what to do, and just when they were going to concede and allow Jack the shaky chance of at least finding Maddie and bringing the Specter Speeder back, a familiar rev was heard outside. One that immediately filled Jazz with the tiniest bit of rage.

The trio peered out of the destroyed door to find that Johnny 13 and Kitty were out one of their often disastrous dates. Jazz was annoyed at first, not only from having to see his face again but at herself for not closing the portal.

Then inspiration struck her.

“You guys are good at those motorcycle arcade games, right.”

“That honor goes to me,” Sam soundly replied, and Tucker pouted in agreement. “Why?”

Jazz’s reply came right after a wide, devious grin. “I think I found you a ride.”

\--

“Remember I want a Caesar salad and a medium fry, okay baby?”

“You got it, Kitten!” Johnny called back from the Nasty Burger’s front door before heading inside. So far their date was going smoothly; Kitty had Johnny’s full attention for once, and they both were in a pretty good mood. Plus the day was pretty cloudy and dreary so Shadow could join them more easily. It didn’t seem like anything could go wrong at that point.

The moment Kitty heard a familiar large gust of wind and saw a blue flash from behind her, she knew that she was wrong.

A few minutes later, Johnny came back out, with Shadow behind him munching on Kitty’s fries. “Sorry, I tried to stop him, but Shadow just wouldn’t liste--” He stopped in his tracks and dropped his bag, shocked and angered at the sight of Sam in the seat of his bike and Kitty nowhere to be found.

“Oh, is this your bike? Sorry, didn’t notice…” Sam said, feigning innocence and putting on the fakest, brightest smile she could manage. She cheekily shook a Thermos which Johnny instantly knew had Kitty inside. “BYE!” Immediately, Sam sped off, driving away as fast as she could on Johnny’s bike. 

Johnny growled and stomped on the bag in anger. “MY BIKE! Not again!” The ghost looked at his shadow and pointed off to the road. “Go on ahead of me and get my bike and that Thermos!” Shadow nodded and chased after Sam, while Johnny grabbed a moped from some random teen and followed suit on it.

Meanwhile, Sam got the bike into the lab back in Fenton Works, and Tucker immediately got to work attaching a makeshift dual passenger seat onto it.

“Hurry up, Tucker!”

“I’m going, I’m going!” the techno geek went as fast as he could and finally managed to get the seat securely on. Sam hopped back onto the bike, Tucker taking the passenger seat for now. Sam grabbed their own Booooo-merang they kept with them and shouted “Find Danny!”, throwing it in and starting their trek.

“Good luck, you guys!” Jazz called as she closed the portal and went off to the side to get a few things. By the time it closed, Johnny and Shadow had arrived. Any color in Johnny’s face paled when he saw her. Jazz had armed herself with two small blasters and was wearing a Specter Deflector. Johnny immediately turned around, intending to try his luck with Vlad’s portal (even potentially facing Plasmius’ wrath was better than the wrath of a woman scorned, a woman he very clearly remembered using and who obviously wasn’t happy about it. He knew this well enough from Kitty.), but slammed into a now-active ghost shield for his troubles

“Jazz! Heh… what a surprise to see you here!” Johnny said, anxious and with his back pinned to the shield as Jazz advanced slowly on him.

“I live here.”

“Yeah, yeah, you do! I like what your folks did to the place!” Johnny glanced at Shadow to protect him, but Jazz was prepared, putting a few medical spotlights in the shield’s range. The bright lights prevented Shadow from forming, leaving Johnny alone with only his own powers to protect him.

Wasn’t much help when he was surrounded by ghost weapons with a girl who knew how to use them. A few of them faulty, but ghost hunting weapons all the same.

“I’ll keep you company until they come back with your bike, Johnny. Until then, why don’t we have a little... ‘chat’?”

And that's how Johnny ended up in a VERY long psychology session with his technically ex-girlfriend.


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Enjoy two chapters in one since this one is really short.)
> 
> What had happened to Jack if he was going after our two protagonists?

second he left the portal behind as he cruised along in the confines of the Specter Speeder, Jack dropped his jovial demeanor and became serious. It was a rare but powerful emotion for the man to have, and he remained in silent contemplation throughout his trip. He didn’t want his Jazzerincess to see just how devastated he really was about the love of his life and the problem he had caused. She needed to stay calm when talking to her brother about this and be the rock between them. Besides, he could handle it alone.

The ride could be long, though, which gave him plenty of time to prepare mentally.

He shook his head softly in shame, only taking his eyes off the ‘road’ a second before paying attention once again. How could he not have been more careful when shooting the bazooka at the group, with Maddie so close by? How could he not have thought to shoot a little closer to the ghosts, leaving them no time to react and drag Maddie with them into the dark recesses of the Ghost Zone. It was his lust for hunting these demented and disturbed creatures once again that was his undoing. 

He always ended up jumping the gun. From the day he ruined Vladdy’s surprise birthday party in freshman year of high school because Jack thought his dad was the birthday boy, to the day last year when they first discovered Phantom and he thought that Jazz was a ghost, to just last month when Danny had caught a nasty flu and Jack thought he was being overshadowed simply because he wasn’t acting like himself (Danny had a fever and was slightly delirious, talking about being the ghost kid of all things! Nonsense!) and trying locking the boy inside of the Fenton Stockades to ‘lure the ghost out’, the man had a clear cut reputation to act before thinking.

“Aw, cheer up, Jack!” he said to himself as a pick-me-up, sick of the negative thoughts within five minutes, “On the bright side, when you find Mads, you find the ghost kid!” There was little to no doubt in Jack’s mind that Phantom would be with Maddie, either with him holding her hostage… or the other way around. Even if she wasn’t there in any form, the Booooo-merang was leading Jack right to the spook; he’d MAKE Phantom tell him where he was hiding her. All outcomes led to Phantom getting nabbed and ready to tear apart molecule by molecule! It was a win any way he put it; why was he getting so down on himself?!

The Booooo-merang arched towards the right, Jack diligently following it. He could already feel the sense of satisfaction rip right through him; the Booooo-merang didn’t tell Jack how close he was, but that didn’t matter to him. However far out they were, the souped up and fully fueled Specter Speeder could get him there.

After a while, about a half hour according to the Speeder’s clock, the Booooo-merang suddenly took a sharp left turn. Jack was confused, but didn’t think much of it. The ghost kid was pretty fast; he could change directions fast enough for the device to turn like that while tracking him. The device led him right to a lair of all things, most definitely Phantom’s.

Because truly, a diabolical monster like Phantom having a giant lair in the shape of a skull was poetically perfect!


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In reprieve, Maddie takes the time to analyze information about her son.

It took a fairly long time for the ice around the ghosts to dissipate, and an even longer time before Walker and his goons gave up looking for the two of them. It was the first amount of true amusement Maddie had felt since her and Danny got into this mess, watching them float around frantically looking for her and her baby like chickens with their heads cut off.

Walker angrily threw down his fedora, screaming out a string of curses and signaling they were finally retreating into the prison. Maddie let out a sigh of relief, peeking out of her hiding place in the tree hollow once she was sure they were gone, shaded in darkness and out of sight. Danny lied in the back of the spectral plant, unresponsive but healing with fresh, cool leaves wrapping his head once again. Now that Maddie knew that Danny was Phantom, she would give anything to have him awake right at that moment, no matter how dazed his voice would sound from his concussion or how laced with delirium his train of thought would be. 

Instead, she took what she could get, and found mild comfort in the fact that he was still alive, or at the very least half alive. His face wasn’t twisted in a drunken smile, or in excruciating pain or fear. It was simply relaxed, almost as if he were in his soft bed in a dreamless sleep without any injury on his person whatsoever. Absently, Maddie gently stroked the strands of Danny’s hair poking out of the makeshift bandage as she took the time to think about everything.

Her son was a ghost, however partially; it still seemed surreal but this much she acknowledged. How could she not have noticed her son was partially a ghost sooner? All the signs were there after all.

Setting off all of their inventions and supposedly revealing bugs when in fact there were little to none. Maddie shook her head and lightly chuckled, baffled at how this caused so much research money to be thrown out the window.

The missed curfews, the sneaking out, and ditching school. Duty was obviously calling, now that she looked at her son’s actions in a more heroic light like he had been trying to tell them to do as Phantom all along. He would rather risk getting grounded or detention than have Amity Park go down in flames in the hands of evil ghosts.

The lowered grades. It was inevitable he would have no time to study with his ‘full time job’. The improved report card was simply a result of positive consequences now that she thought about it. There was a significant decrease in ghostly activity over the last month or so, meaning fewer and fewer sightings of Phantom, and more study time for Danny.

There were still questions, of course. What of the times when he had committed crimes? Why did he decide to take on this large mantle of heroism? Was there anyone else who knew; from her behavior, Jazz certainly knew and knowing how tightly-knit they were, the same went for Sam and Tucker.

How did it all happen in the first place…?

Maddie shook her head, realizing she was still stroking Danny’s faded white hair, muddied with dirt and his own ectoplasm. She stopped, slightly dismayed when it created no reaction. Listening closely, his stomach rumbled. She didn’t know how hunger worked for him in his ghostly form, as ghosts usually didn’t eat, but she knew it had been a long time since either of them had eaten, no food in sight. No wonder his hallucinations seemed to revolve around food.

Maddie sighed, feeling like a terrible mother. Her child shouldn’t be going hungry. The two of them should have eaten dinner by now, Maddie at home and Danny at Sam’s. Or lunch. Maybe breakfast again depending on how long it had been. She didn’t know anymore.

She was about to resign to her starving fate when she finally felt something in her pocket. It was a considerably decent sized piece of fudge Jack had given her after she won Monopoly. She wasn’t hungry and wanted to save it for later, and she stuck it in her jumpsuit. It was dented and squished, and not good for them, but it was something.

Breaking the piece in half, she munched on her portion greedily, saving the other piece for Danny when he regained consciousness. She sighed, satisfied that her own hunger pangs faded somewhat. The lingering smell did nothing to rouse Danny, however. She was starting to become a bit paranoid.

“Phantom…?” she softly asked, making sure to continue using his alias to not confuse him. He moaned softly, but made no indication he was waking up. “Phantom, can you hear me…?” she tried again, louder. No sound this time. Maddie then resorted to squeezing in between his fingers, the sharp, quick pain hopefully rousing him. The flinch and whine that came was a good sign. “Phantom, wake up…” she continued to urge. Eventually his eyes opened lazily, pupils dilated and irises clouded. At least his pupils were the same size now.

“...where?” his soft, slurred voice muttered out. Danny slowly blinked as awareness, or at least the level he had before, began returning to him.

“‘hat happen’d…?” He asked, pawing lightly at the makeshift gauze until Maddie had to pry his hand away. His brows furrowed in confusion, almost in offense as he looked up at her.

“Why’d ya do tat…? Th-there’s a thin’ on my head…” he muttered, tilting his head and wincing slightly when he did so. His voice was back to having a thick slur, but that was to be expected with how much ectoplasm he lost using that ice attack. It was akin to heavy blood loss, after all.

‘Don’t make yourself sick, Maddie. You can take as many sick days as you need when you’re home, but you have to be strong right now for the both of us,’ Maddie thought. She must have blanked out longer than she thought because Danny was looking up at her with mild worry.

“M-Maddie…?” he asked. She hated how scared he looked, even if it was for her own well-being. Just a day ago, the fear would have brought her pleasure, but now thought of it made bile threaten to come to the surface of her stomach. She swallowed hard.

“We were in a fight, remember…? You fainted afterwards,” Maddie ground out, as calmly and motherly as she dared, hurt internally that she had to continue acting as if she were with a stranger to her own son. She knew she had to keep the illusion and not act too different, but damn if it wasn’t difficult.

“Fight… Wit’ the Skull Gummy, right…?” he said, luckily remembering the fight and even more so too out of it to notice her inner turmoil. Maddie nodded, and his face lit up with the drunken smile again.

“I got the question right! Aced the pop quiz…! Take tha’, Monsieur Luncher Pants!” Danny cheered, glazed, not entirely focused eyes dancing in unprompted joy like he had just gotten a raise in allowance.

‘Luncher Pants’... well at least Mr. Lancer received a closer nickname than ‘Blurry Lady’. Maddie grin slightly.

“Are you hungry? I found a piece of fudge in my pocket,” she offered, lifting the saved piece out towards him. He tilted his head curiously, as if he’d never seen a piece of fudge before. They shared a house with Jack; of COURSE he normally knew what fudge was.

“Looks kinna like dir’,” Danny mumbled, poking the dessert like it would jump out of Maddie’s hand and bite him.

If he remembered how often their meals mutated, then it was an appropriate response, she supposed.

“It’s not dirt,” she said, and she patiently waited until he took the portion and started nibbling it. The nibbling didn’t last long; his eyes widened and he began biting off large chunks, devouring the piece in under a minute. He had to have been really hungry; Danny generally steered clear of sweets if it wasn’t ice cream related.

“MMMM!” he sounded in delight, licking any leftover chocolate off of his gloves. “More?”

“Sorry, not until we’re out of the Ghost Zone. I’ll feed you more when I give you those ectoplasm treatments.” Danny immediately pouted.

“You said I dinn’t need ‘em…” he whined, his pout slowly deepening to that of a disappointed four-year-old instead of a disgruntled 15-year-old. Maddie chuckled despite herself, knowing it was still no laughing matter that her son was acting like this.

“I know but you were out for a while after that attack and most likely the only thing keeping you from destabilizing is the fuel cell I had you drink.” She left out the part about the almost-coma to not freak him out of make him suspicious; ghosts weren’t supposed to go into comas. She lifted the remains of the broken cartridge and Danny slowly nodded in understanding, more than likely not recalling the ten seconds he had woken up when she was forcing the contents into him. He still didn’t look happy about it, though.

“Can you stand up? I need to see if your motor skills are still alright.”

He nodded and slowly but surely got to his feet, tottering to the left but overall standing straight and tall.

“A little of a set back but overall, you’re still doing better,” Maddie said to herself approvingly. The fuel cell was just what he needed to further kick start his healing. Without it, his coordination would definitely be more shot. “I want you to rest for a little while before we try flying again though.”

“‘Kay, Maddie…” he uttered, sitting back down and resting against the wall of the tree. He had said her name with more practiced ease, more without the urge to call her ‘Blurry Lady’. It might be a bit too soon to check, but she couldn’t help herself.

“So… do you remember anything else yet?” ‘About me?’ she added privately in her thoughts.

“You have a daughter… name’s ‘Blues’ right…?” Danny answered, putting a finger to his chin in contemplation. His voice began sounding a bit clearer when remembering, almost to the level it was before the fight but not normal. ‘Blues’... well, he was on the right track at least.

“‘Jazz’,” Maddie corrected, happy he was close.

“Right right… ‘Jazz’... Jazz… ‘Ey, I have a sister named Jazz!” he said excitedly, but recoiled a bit a second later like he had revealed something he shouldn’t have. Maybe if Maddie didn’t already know his identity, it would have been damning, surprising even, but she instead pretended to not have heard that last part.

“Anything else?” she continued without a hitch, getting a quiet but detectable sigh of relief out of Danny. Even in such a state he knew to keep his secret a secret.

“Ooh, ooh! You live in Angry Place! Apple Plaza! Amazing Parkway!”

“‘Amity Park.”

“Yeah, what you said…” Danny said, looking a bit flummoxed as he lightly smacked his head in self punishment, getting him to wince.

“Don’t smack your head; you’ll hurt yourself more,” Maddie scolded, and he quickly nodded. As the conversation ceased, Maddie noticed Danny falling asleep again, making sure we wasn’t passing out before letting him drift off.

It would make him feel better, and for now that was all that mattered.


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As their journey continues, Maddie notices a particularly bad roadblock.

Now that she was willing to get more and more up close and personal, Maddie could sense there was definitely some underlying problem wrong with Danny, and it wasn’t some kind of injury like one might expect.

She noticed it when they had gotten back to flying, on top of other, more positive changes. Because she gave him purified ectoplasm, Danny’s body was properly jump started into healing. Little by little, the stains all over his hazmat suit and body were vanishing, making him appear almost like normal if it wasn’t for the rips and tears in his suit that remained. Maddie didn’t worry though. When he could change back, they would most likely mend themselves. The bandage had to stay for now though. The wound was still leaking but gradually it was closing up. All this was making Danny’s aura a lot brighter than before, but not normal though.

The healing was reflecting mentally too. Danny wasn’t hallucinating as badly or as often, other than the invisible ‘rock hopper penguin with the spiky mustache’ that kept following them and wouldn’t go away, one that he’s insistent was really there; the distinction from reality would probably be one of the last things to return, before the hallucinations themselves fading away. His flight wasn’t as steady as normal, but his stamina was vastly improving; Danny flew an entire half hour before even thinking about resting, and resting they currently were, in an area Danny could identify as somewhere between ‘Wish Girl’s’ lair and a giant floating high school that looked a lot like Casper High. He had even called it ‘Casper High’ by name.

The entire time though, with the lack of split ectoplasm immediately on his person, Maddie smelled something all over the boy. It was an almondy scent, like cyanide, only it certainly wasn’t cyanide because Maddie wasn’t feeling ill; it smelled fake, maybe even a bit sugary. Now that the sticky, viscous ectoplasm had disappeared into Danny’s body, Maddie noticed that the almondy odor took physical form as a thin film all over him. Maddie tried pulling on it while Danny was distracted with recovering, and she saw that a little of it peeled off like a sticker only for the surrounding film to expand and close the gap. It was fascinating, but she had no clue of the significance. She needed answers.

“Phantom?” Maddie piped up, getting Danny to turn his head over to Maddie in questioning. 

“Yeah?” he muttered back, voice sounding more dreamy than anything.

“I need you to think really hard. Do you remember anything about what happened before we were sent here?” Around that time had to be when this film appeared; Danny was clean and had showered before he left for Sam’s. He put a finger on his chin before shaking his head ‘no’. “All I know is that Fire Skelet-- er, Skulker had somethin’ to do with it. And I went flying through… uh…” He had to momentarily think about the name before it came back to him, “... Amity Park, before ending up in the Ghost Zone. Ain’t that right, Hoppy?” Danny nodded at nothing in particular, most likely that ‘penguin’ from before.

Maddie tried filling in the blanks in her own mind. Before Danny and Skulker came to Fenton Works, they were clearly in a fight. A bad one for Danny if Skulker didn’t have a single scratch on him before arriving, and Maddie knew Danny knew how to fight from seeing him as Phantom. How long that fight was was unclear, however, due to the damage Danny sustained. Maddie was unfamiliar with how Skulker fought, but he couldn’t have been that effectual besides causing property damage in his wake. Now that she noticed it, the film was present then too. And Danny’s ectoplasm was flowing out like water when it came out...

Wait… a self-repairing film? An almond odor? Disorientation? A blood thinner like effect on released ectoplasm? Lowered stamina? Doesn’t affect humans…? She felt like she had seen this somewhere…

\--

“Mads! Mads, come quickly, it’s ready!”

It was the day before, during the time the kids were at school. Maddie sat alone at the table, taking apart an ecto gun and putting it back together again while waiting for Jack to put the finishing touches on an invention the two of them were working on. The man wanted to finish it himself for whatever reason. She rolled her eyes at her husband’s enthusiasm and placed down her things before traveling down to their basement lab.

Over in the center table was a small canister next to an improvised aerosol can, with Jack excitedly hopping up and down next to it. He had the largest smile on his face, making a breakthrough evident. Off in the leftmost corner of the room was a single green ghost inside of a ghost shield sphere, trying to escape its confines and avoid its fate as a test subject.

“The Fenton Spritzer is finally done!” Jack cried, lifting the can up high proudly. Maddie clapped encouragingly and hugged him, imitating his large smile. A sleepless month and their latest project was complete at last; the two scientists could have slept for an entire day if Jack didn’t need to pick the kids up. Some of the chemical had been left in the engine of the GAV.

Jack walked over to the ghost shield with the aerosol can in tow, and the ghost cowered a little at the sight and background smell of it. Maddie cringed a little at the oddly sweet scent herself.

“Why does it smell like almonds and pastries, honey? I thought it was supposed to be odorless.”

“I was eating a bear claw before I mixed the last of the chemicals in! MAN, was it good!” Some of the sugar and an almond must have been left behind on his hands and melted into the chemical soup, creating the scent. Without a single hesitation, Jack sprayed the contents of the can onto the ghost, covering it in a clear, sticky film. 

It was a simple idea in its concept: An improved, gaseous version of the Fenton Foamer that worked differently with the same result: incapacitation. Gone would be the days of having to toil away and waste time scraping the captured ghost off of the wall, or just scraping the foam off period due to Jack’s admittedly horrid aim. Now all a ghost hunter or even civilian would have to do is spray some of the Fenton Spritzer on and whack away at the ghost until it was ripped apart molecule by molecule, with virtually no resistance. 

The gas was designed to disrupt the bonds within ectoplasm, acting like a blood thinner first and foremost and causing temporary destabilization in small and/or weak, low level ghosts as well as lowered stamina in larger and/or strong, higher level ghosts. Small enough and it would most likely waste it completely. To prevent a ghost from healing efficiently, the gas corrupts any ectoplasm it touches and deadens its self repairing qualities. The disruption of bonds also disrupts a ghost’s neural connections, the parts of ectoplasm that allows the ghost to mentally function, causing disorientation and confusion in more sentient beings. These effects remain until the film is removed.

The ghost swayed dizzily before slumping uselessly onto the ground, sluggish, unmoving, and halfway destabilized according to the green ectoplasmic ooze that started flowing forth. Maddie even lifted the shield and the ghost made no attempt at escape, stuck in an inescapable daze. The test was successful.

“Wait till that Ghost Kid or any other spectral punk gets a whiff of this baby! Amity Park’ll be cleared out in no time!” Jack cried, ecstatic that the invention worked. Maddie, at the time, couldn’t have agreed more.

They were about to take off for a field test when the phone rang.

“I’ll get it, hon!” Maddie said to Jack, making her way upstairs. Upon answering, Danny’s excited voice and the sounds of Jazz trying to get the phone from him in the background could be heard. Maddie didn’t know what was going on then, but she had a feeling everyone would be a happy camper that day.

\--

Maddie just wished those feelings carried over so that she could better deal with this situation.

“The Fenton Spritzer…” Maddie said to herself in horror, eyes widening in realization as Danny behind her looked at her funny. 

“Vent whozeewhat…?” Danny said, tried to see if he heard her right from his expression. Maddie didn’t hear him right as she was focused on the rage filled and uneasy ramblings in her head, all centered around Skulker.

How did that ghost get a hold of the formula?!

“This is very, VERY bad… it’s no wonder you’ve been so out of it, even WITHOUT that concussion!” She facepalmed, angry with herself that she not only indirectly poisoned her own son, but that she didn’t realize it in the first place. Who knows what kind of complications it could have by Danny having it on him for so long?! He could stay in this dazed state for a long time after, have weakened stamina and strength chronically, even transition into full-blown retrograde amnesia and not just forget a few things. If only they had performed those field tests, she could have known for certain!

Alright, she might have been exaggerating, but they were all very real possibilities. And as long as that gunk was still on him, Danny couldn’t heal enough in his human half to not slip into a coma.

“Uh… Maddie…? You’re scaring Hoppy with that weird walking thing you’re doing…” Maddie looked down and realized she had been pacing back and forth in her frustration. She didn’t care at the moment. She needed to think. Danny looked at her hopelessly confused the entire time.

“We need to get that film off of you ASAP… question is, how… Oh, what was that antidote again…? Club soda? Soap…? 

“‘Film’...? Ooh, are we gonna watch a movie?! Does it have gummy bears swimming in sour cream in it? Gummy bears taste great in sour cream and dirt since it brings out the happy face jumbo shirt flavor!” Danny swayed his arms front and back like an impatient child with the dopey smile returning with a vengeance.

She had lost him again… just when he was starting to sound a little more like himself again… And what was with this fixation on gummy bears?! 

Though in an odd bright side to this whole thing, this was probably the most time they had spent alone together since the fiasco in the Rockies where they were trapped with… Vlad. She shuddered just thinking about it, even if the man DID minutely redeem himself. Plus she had to be happy Danny WAS healing despite the ectoplasm deadening effects of the chemicals.

“Phantom, stay with me now,” Maddie said, gently shaking him by the shoulders to jerk him back to some clarity. Danny blinked, his eyes sharpening just enough to return to their new bleary look.

“R-Right, right sorry… my brain still feels like it’s in molasses…” he muttered quietly, rubbing his head.

“That’s fine. As soon as we get this stuff off of you, you should be fine in no time afterwards,” Maddie explained, grabbing a piece of the film and stretching it to show what she meant. Danny’s eyes widened a bit in surprise, but he didn’t say a word. Maddie fought the urge to roll her eyes; with all the things Danny had seen in this state, conjured up by his own delusional mind nonetheless, the gunk should have been normal in comparison.

“For now though, let me look you over,” Maddie said sweetly, patting a rock she was near. Upon inspection of the bandage, it was no longer needed; the wound had finally closely up. Maddie cheered privately, tossing the thing aside while Danny was trying to look up at his messy hair. Still dulled and filthy from all the wear and tear but not a speck of green. It was all the woman needed from the white locks. Finally, her baby’s appearance was returning to normal. She could probably patch the suit when they were back, which didn’t seem too far off if the fact that Danny was recognizing locations was any indication. That ‘three days’ must have been in ‘ghost’ time.

‘’m ready,” Danny announced after a while, slowly standing back up to pick Maddie up and leave. Just as he motioned to pick her up, he suddenly froze like a deer in headlights. Not a second later, he yelped loudly in pain, feeling the back of his neck in a panic.

“What’s the matter?” Maddie asked, alarmed when Danny wouldn’t snap out whatever this was and stop picking at his neck. Something tangible, real, Maddie could almost certainly tell, was making him freak out. Anything made in his delirium never caused pain, only giddiness.

They were near the lairs of other, more hostile ghosts. Could something be attacking them? Looking around, Maddie saw ‘Wish Girl’s lair and the fake Casper High next to them, but off to the distance, she noticed an odd floating… was that a football?!

‘Did those direction giving ghosts mention something about a purple football?’, Maddie asked internally as she racked her brain for answers. A flash and a thump made her attention fly right back to Danny, who had suddenly flopped to the floor in human form, barely conscious and with glazed, even cloudier eyes.

“Danny!” she cried, immediately going over to him to check for what was wrong. She didn’t bother to hide the fact that she knew in this case because he didn’t seem to be aware of anything at all. Had his energy run out again?! It couldn’t have; he hadn’t needed to attack anything! He moaned and looked up at her with a confused expression before his eyes rolled back with the sharp closure of his eyelids, having fallen unconscious. She would have yelled in horror, her panicking about him falling into a coma, if she didn’t notice the thing that turned out to be pestering his neck:

A single dart, hollow and empty of any contents when she had plucked it from him. It was green, adorned with Danny’s emblem in black on one side and details of the contents on the other.

“A… tranquilizer dart…?” Maddie uttered, clueless as to why anyone in the Ghost Zone would have tranquilizer darts. From the emblem, it was most likely made specifically for Danny’s halfa structure so that it would work. But who would--

Just then, Maddie felt a sharp prick in her own left arm, causing her to cry out in pain as well. The dart was blue when she saw it, nothing specific about it, but it was obvious it was another tranquilizer by the foggy feeling in her head. She yanked the dart out quickly, but it was too late. She staggered, falling onto her back when her feet became too unsteady to support her weight.

As her vision faded to black, a dark glove hand from out of nowhere reached for her. Whatever happened next was lost on her as she faded out soon after.


	13. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Maddie and Danny in Vlad's grasp, what role does he play in all of this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, there's still a couple of finished chapters left I forgot to post. Sorry about that!

_ If Vladimir Masters was to be given credit for one thing, it is that he is a thorough and persistent man. _

 

_ Spying on the Fentons had fallen out of routine for a long period since Maddie the cat had fallen ill and needed to be tended to immediately, as well as Daniel finding out about the large sum of cameras and destroying them on the spot. After the precious feline recovered, the broken cameras replaced with stealthier models, he went to check the feed for the first time in a while.  _

 

_ “Ah, time for my favorite pastime: watching the life of my dear sweet Maddie an--” _

 

_ “Mraow,” Maddie the cat interrupted, ruining Vlad’s well planned announcement. _

 

_ “Eh… not you, darling. Let’s just see what Daniel and his family have been up to now. I’ve been lacking inspiration.” _

 

_ The feed eventually came into focus, with Jasmine and Daniel being guided forcefully down into the lab by Jack. He foolishly never picked up on the discomfort on his own children. _

 

_ ‘You kids are really gonna love this one!’ _

 

_ ‘Dad, I have a book report I gotta finish/I’m in a chat room with a professor from the college I want to go to,’ the children complained simultaneously, although from Daniel’s unease in particular, the book report seemed to be fabricated in an attempt to escape. _

 

_ ‘This won’t take long!’ Jack proudly announced, completely ignoring their protests and placing them down in chairs in front of a large table full of beakers and other various equipment. An announcement of a new invention emanate, Vlad increased the volume on the speakers to hear more clearly. A quiet muttering about how he ‘always says that’ came from Daniel before Jack began. _

 

_ ‘What you’re looking at is a new piece for the Fenton line in the making! Might look like a bunch of chemicals now, but when they’re all put together, it’ll make something fantastic!’ _

 

_ ‘What’s it supposed to do?’ Jasmine asked, while Daniel seemed to be bothered by something. The boy held his head and looked incredibly uncomfortable. Curious, Vlad set up two screens on his monitors: one to keep an eye on Daniel specifically, and a wide view for Jack and the invention. _

 

_ ‘Well, Jazzypants, it’s simple. Y’know how I don’t really have the best of aim whenever I try using the Fenton Foamer?’ Jack asked, and Jasmine nodded her head. “Well, I got it in my head the other day: We always waste a bunch of time when we miss with the thing. Why not make it harder to miss?’ He asked rhetorically in a voice that made Vlad wince. It seemed enough like an interesting concept, but what fascinated him at the moment was Daniel’s state. _

 

_ Daniel was by now in a mild stupor, not even holding his head anymore and staring off into space. His eyes were heavy and unfocused, and his pupils became more and more dilated to the point where eventually only a sliver of blue was visible. Perhaps the chemicals Jack had displayed were blending together in the air into a sort of prototype of the invention. It certainly worked on halfas based on the boy’s behavior. _

 

_ As Jack rambled on about the concept, Vlad watched in awe as Daniel seemed to mentally deteriorate rapidly after that, having a conversation with the ceiling in earnest while Jasmine became more and more anxious. It goes without saying Jack still didn’t notice, too caught up in explaining away his plans and blueprints. It was when Daniel started trying to toss ‘homemade’ snowballs at something he called ‘Murphy the Pelican Taco’ that Jasmine had had enough. _

 

_ ‘Sounds really amazing Dad, but we really need to get going. Good luck!’ Jasmine quickly got herself and the no longer lucid Daniel out of the lab and into the boy’s bedroom. _

 

_ ‘Danny, what’s the matter with you? You almost gave yourself away!’ Jasmine scolded. The boy was a lost cause, glazed eyes staring at her uncomprehending. _

 

_ ‘Murphy wouldn’t stop pecking my head. Must’ve been the paper airplanes carrying the glitter pencils,’ Daniel slurred, so matter of factly in tone that it made Jasmine do a double take. She spent ten minutes attempting to snap him out of his daze, but nothing worked, his mind too fogged from such a long exposure to the airborne chemical soup in the lab. _

 

_ Daniel regained clarity of mind at around 11 at night, a good five hours later. Jasmine showed visible relief, nearly fed up from having to babysit the boy the entire time he was out of it. ‘What am I doing in my room…?’ Daniel groaned, placing a hand on his head as before and wincing as Jasmine turned on the light. She sighed and carefully led him to bed. _

 

_ ‘You got poisoned by a bunch of chemicals Dad set up in the lab. You wouldn’t stop babbling a bunch of gibberish for hours and you almost got caught using your powers in front of Mom twice.’ The boy paled as the girl nodded slowly. _

 

_ Jasmine decidedly told Daniel nothing else, be it anything about the invention or what he did under the influence of the chemicals. Her reasoning was sound enough; why give him something else to be concerned about in his already stressful life. The matter was dropped, and the boy completely forgot about the gas. _

 

_ Daniel might have stopped paying attention to the invention but Vlad never did. _

 

_ He watched and waited for updates on the progress, laughing and longing for popcorn every time Jack failed to mix something together correctly, smiling satisfied whenever Daniel was affected simply by being near the basement door even when it was closed (giving out and about ghosts free passes while he stumbled around his house like a buffoon), watching intently and earnestly whenever Maddie was on screen whatsoever. The month was never boring. To move the process along, he had intimidated the vast majority of hostile ghosts into leaving the human world alone so the Fentons could focus. It would have taken half the year otherwise. _

 

_ As the can test proved successful, it was time for phase 2. After a long night of watching Maddie best Jack at Vlad’s favorite board game, the man sprang into action. They forgot to turn on the ghost shield in their exhaustion, so Vlad took the opportunity to send Skulker to retrieve the invention, his suit able to stave off any effects the gas may have on him. The hunter was instructed to hide out in front of the Manson house until Daniel woke up, then drag him back to the Vlad’s own mansion after he had been stupefied. Skulker then proceeded to listen to him only halfway and give Daniel a chance to hide out in Fenton Works, allowing the two of them and his Maddie to be sucked into the Ghost Zone.  _

 

_ Vlad was absolutely furious! This unnecessarily complicated his plans with Maddie’s presence, and he couldn’t keep an eye out on Daniel and Maddie because their location was unknown! On the fly, Vlad came up with a plan B, and threw together a special tranquilizer dart that would force Daniel back into human form and keep him out for a while. The transformation was sure to shock and confuse Maddie, allowing Vlad to step in and use the shock to his advantage after Maddie awoke from her own dart. Daniel would be too out of it to reveal Vlad’s own secret as part of their mutual agreement, so it was perfectly safe. _

 

_ As he found out when he actually used the darts on them, even that didn’t have much of an impact as Vlad would have liked... _

 

_ The boy, as it turned out based on Maddie’s more distracted and subdued reaction to the change, had already changed back before in front of her! Skulker would be severed punished for forcing his hand like this, but Vlad had one last resort, one that if successful would instantly give him the both of them at once. _

 

\--

 

The gaze Vlad held towards his computer screen was steady, unwavering despite his now drooping, sleep deprived eyes straining themselves. He wouldn’t take his eyes off of the monitor watching over his room, however, not until Maddie showed signs of movement. He couldn’t go and complete the next phase of his slightly botched but still brilliant plan until the tranquilizer wore off.

 

Daniel, Daniel’s friends, and Jack were no problem. Daniel was locked in his own state of unconsciousness within Vlad’s lab, just beside the man’s security system so he could keep an eye on him. The sedative he had used on him was capable of affecting both halves and was very powerful; undiluted, it could knock out a denizen of Princess Dorothea's kingdom in their dragon form just by absorbing it, leaving the unlucky victim unconscious for days. He showed no sign of waking any time soon, only more pronounced by his slowly healing concussion. The sensors in the pod acted as a slow healer, providing Daniel’s body with just enough residual ectoplasm to keep him from going comatose. At the rate the pod’s going, he should be 100% fine and ready for the special ‘manipulation settings’ within 12 hours.

 

As for Jack and Daniel’s friends, they completely blipped off of his radar the moment they entered the Ghost Zone. They were out of range of view and the tracker he tended to keep on the Specter Speeder stopped tracking Jack’s movements hours ago. He had no idea what had happened to them and, frankly, he didn’t care. This only left Jasmine unaccounted for, but she was so preoccupied with chatting up Johnny 13, she didn’t take heed to much else. There was no outside danger to contend with this time.

 

Movement from the monitor caught Vlad’s eye. Paying attention at once, Vlad grinned as he saw Maddie’s body stir. She was finally waking up.

 

Swiftly getting out of his chair and leaving Maddie the Cat with a yarn ball, Vlad left the room and prepared to drop onto Maddie his ultimatum…

 

...One that she couldn’t possibly refuse.

 

\--

 

The first thing Maddie registered was a soft feeling under her body. It was cloud-like in nature, almost molding to her shape like… memory foam…

 

Memory foam… was this a bed?!

 

Maddie sprang up immediately, disturbed that she was no longer lying on the hard ground in the Ghost Zone but rather was lying on a large bed in an unknown location. It wasn’t her own bedroom, that was for sure. The room was too big, the bed soft instead of containing hard springs and there wasn’t a single sign of Jack or any invention parts. Based on the windows, it was the middle of the night, about 2 in the morning from what the digital clock to her left told her. The air was thick. Mildly humid with a hint of background ectoplasm, the atmosphere of Amity Park. Wherever she was, she was back in her town. She breathed a sigh of relief before she fully recalled her situation and panic shot through her like a bullet. 

 

Where was her son?

 

She got up out of bed with a snappy toss of her sheets, looking around frantically for Danny. She had to find him, had to make sure he was alright and not in a damned coma… or worse. Maddie looked multiple times on and around the bed, in the closet, through the window, even under the bed. No sign of him was anywhere, and no sign was present that he was even in the room in the first place. Not a single hair, not a speck of blood or ectoplasm in sight, not even his distinct ‘Danny’ smell. 

 

Her head looked to the door. He had to be somewhere around here. Maddie didn’t want to think about Danny being lost, alone and unconscious somewhere in the Ghost Zone.

 

As she moved to open the door, it slowly swung open, revealing the sympathetic looking but smug all at once Vlad Masters. A quick look around as he gave the woman a sad looking smile, now that he had turned on the lights, revealed green and gold paint everywhere, a few not-so-hidden, slightly creepy looking pictures of Maddie with Vlad added in digitally that made Maddie shiver unconsciously, and right next to it an almost equally creepy picture of Danny. This was most definitely his mansion if she ever saw it.

 

“Maddie! I was wondering when you would wake!” Vlad said in a relieved tone, the sad looking smile morphing into something happier as he gave her a light hug. Maddie could see a little shiftiness in his eyes, but she didn’t question it. It WAS two in the morning, after all.

 

“I was on my way home from an office affair when I saw that dreaded Wisconsin Ghost carrying you and Daniel off, a tranquilizer gun in tow,” Vlad explained to her. So the black gloves were from the Wisconsin Ghost then.

 

“I was so worried, I took it upon myself to blast it out of the sky and rescue you both,” Vlad concluded, holding up a large red and white blaster. It looked almost like Fenton grade tech but sleeker, Maddie noted immediately from gazing at it. “It was lucky I saw you, otherwise who knows what could have happene--”

 

“Vlad, where’s Danny? Did you save him too?!” Maddie said, almost frantic, seeing his talking as an obstacle to finding her potentially mortally injured child. Vlad adopted a hopeful yet grave look, and took a deep breath to answer her. Maddie could already predict the telling of bad news before Vlad spoke, and she so desperately didn’t want to hear it.

 

“Yes, my dear, I managed to save Daniel, but unfortunately he is in critical condition.” The man closed his eyes and softly shook her head. Maddie’s face twisted into a horrified expression that in and of itself demanded to know Danny’s whereabouts. Vlad picked up on it and continued speaking, his plan in the forefront of his mind as she clearly took the bait.

 

“Those darts were clearly designed for larger animals in mind, not human beings. I’m not sure what the ‘DP’ logo located on his was for -most likely the one Daniel was shot with was meant for that blasted Danny Phantom instead--” Maddie took in a sharp breath, Vlad pretending not to notice, “--but it did have lethal properties included for humans. The Wisconsin Ghost was certainly trying to kill anyone in his sights with the vile things and unfortunately he homed in on you both.

 

“Your dart was removed in time to not have any lethal side effects on your body, Maddie, but Daniel wasn’t so lucky. He needs to have a reversal drug pumped into his systems, or he may never awaken,” Vlad concluded somberly, lowering his head.

 

The news was devastating to Maddie. They were finally so close to home, so close to this nightmare ending, and then something like THIS had to happen. Danny just might not make it out of this alive… 

 

Sorrowful tears began to well up in the woman’s eyes, no doubt to be replaced with a vengeful resolve on both Skulker and the Wisconsin Ghost, when Vlad spoke up further.

 

“You need not worry, however, Maddie. I have the antidote required to help him.”

 

Maddie’s head perked up immediately upon hearing that, hope coursing through her. “Really?!”

 

“Of course. I’m prepared for any situation with my vast amounts of connections to doctors from across the globe.  Although…” his face got an unreadable look to it suddenly, surprising the woman.

 

“... There is something I need from you first, dear.”

**Author's Note:**

> My most popular fanfic from Fanfiction.net is now being ported over to AO3 in its entirety. Updates here for already published chapters will appear every few days until caught up, and afterwards, new chapters will come the same day. The fic will be unaltered besides grammatical and spelling errors I catch, and when I'm up to speed with how this site works, I'll create something new. 
> 
> With that, enjoy.
> 
> I am not Butch Hartman, my friends.


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